12-,//  I 

LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

PRINCETON.  N.  J. 

Presented  by 

cJ 

UlVlSWH... 

Section....* 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE: 

T     DEC  11  191Q 

OR 


The  Great  Pyramid  of  E&ypt. 


BY 


JOSEPH  A.  SEISS,  D.D., 

Pastor  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Communion,  Philada.,  Pa., 

AUTHOR    OF  "  LAST  TIMES,"  "  LECTURES  ON   THE   GOSPELS,"   "  LECTURES 
ON  THE  APOCALYPSE,"  "  THE  GOSPEL  IN  LEVITICUS,"  ETC. 


[n  that  day  shall  there  be  an  altar  to  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  and  a  pillar  at  the  border  thereof  to  the  Lord ;  and 
it  shall  be  for  a  sign  and  for  a  witness  unto  the  Lord  of 
Hosts  in  the  land  of  Egypt." — Is.  19  :  19,  20. 


SIXTH   EDITION  ENLARGED. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PORTER   &  COATES, 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1877, 
By  JOSEPH  A.  SEISS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D. 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  meant  to  give  a  succinct  comprehen- 
sive account  of  the  oldest  and  greatest  existing  monu- 
ment of  intellectual  man,  particularly  of  the  recent 
discoveries  and  claims  with  regard  to  it. 

If  the  half  that  learned  and  scientific  investigators 
allege  respecting  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh  be  true, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  objects  on  earth,  and 
ought  to  command  universal  attention.  It  has  been 
unhesitatingly  pronounced,  and  perhaps  it  is,  "the 
most  important  discovery  made  in  our  day  and  gener- 
ation." 

Simply  as  an  architectural  achievement,  this  mys- 
terious pillar,  from  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
has  held  its  place  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  "  The 
Seven  Wonders  of  the  World."  But,  under  the  re- 
searches and  studies  of  mathematicians,  astronomers, 
Egyptologists,  and  divines,  it  has  of  late  been  made 
to  assume  a  character  vastly  more  remarkable.  Facts 
and  coincidences  so  numerous  and  extraordinary  have 
been  evolved,  that  some  of  the  most  sober  and  phil- 
osophic minds  have  been  startled  by  them.  It  would 
verily  seem  as  if  it  were  about  to  prove  itself  a  sort 
of  key  to  the  universe — a  symbol  of  the  profoundest 
truths  of  science,  of  religion,  and  of  all  the  past  and 
future  history  of  man.    So  at  least  many  competent 

(3) 


4 


PREFACE. 


persons  have  been  led  to  regard  it,  after  the  most 
thorough  sifting  which  the  appliances  of  modern 
science  and  intelligence  have  been  able  to  give  it. 

Particularly  in  Scotland,  England,  and  France  has 
the  subject  elicited  much  earnest  interest.  Quite  a 
number  of  works  and  treatises,  most  of  them  volumi- 
nous, costly,  and  learned,  have  been  devoted  to  it,  and 
not  without  a  marked  and  serious  impression.  St. 
John  Vincent  Day,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Scottish 
Society  of  Arts,  member  of  sundry  institutions  of 
Engineers,  and  honorable  librarian  of  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  Glasgow,  says  : 

"  A  former  published  work  on  the  subject,  besides 
one  or  two  papers  in  the  transactions  of  a  scientific 
Society,  have  of  necessity  brought  me  into  contact  with 
every  shade  of  opinion  as  to  the  various  theories  re- 
specting the  Pyramid,  and  the  facts  belonging  to  it.  I 
have  thus  been  enabled,  both  by  verbal  and  written 
discussions  and  arguments,  to  ascertain  the  weight  of 
evidence  on  which  theories,  assertions,  contradictions, 
and  alleged  facts  have  been  supported ;  and  I  can 
only  state  that  in  those  cases  where  the  Pyramid  sub- 
ject has  been  examined  into  with  a  diligent  spirit  of 
inquiry,  that  is  with  the  aim  of  not  merely  strength- 
ening preconceived  notions  or  prejudices,  but  to  evolve 
absolute  realities,  I  have  not  yet  met  any  one  but  who 
is  more  or  less  convinced  by  the  modern  theory — 
Preface  to  Papers  on  the  Great  Pyramid,  1 870. 

In  this  country,  the  publications  on  the  subject 
have  been  very  circumscribed.  A  few  tracts,  short 
papers,  review  articles,  or  incidental  discussions  in 


PREFACE. 


5 


connection  with  other  subjects,  is  about  all  that  has 
thus  far  appeared  from  the  American  press.  And  as 
the  European  books  are  mostly  large,  expensive,  and 
not  readily  accessible,  comparatively  few  among  us 
have  had  the  opportunity  of  learning  what  has  de- 
veloped in  this  interesting  field.  A  just  resume  of 
the  matter,  of  moderate  length  and  price,  in  plain  and 
easy  form,  would  seem  to  be  needed  and  specially  in 
place. 

In  the  absence  of  anything  of  the  sort,  and  with  a 
view  to  what  might  in  measure  supply  the  want,  the 
preparation  of  the  following  Lectures  was  undertaken. 
How  far  the  eifort  has  succeeded,  the  candid  reader 
will  determine.  It  has  at  least  been  honest.  Per- 
suaded of  the  varied  worth  of  the  subject,  the  author 
has  endeavored  to  be  accurate  in  his  presentations, 
and  as  thorough  as  the  space  would  allow.  For  his 
data  concerning  the  Pyramid  he  has  been  obliged  to 
rely  on  the  original  works  of  explorers,  to  which  due 
reference  is  given.  Though  in  Egypt  in  the  latter 
part  of  1864,  with  a  view  to  some  personal  examina- 
tions, a  severe  sickness,  contracted  in  Syria  and  Pales- 
tine, prevented  him  from  accomplishing  the  purpose 
for  which  he  visited  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs.  But 
his  interest  did  not  therefore  abate.  In  1869  he  gave 
out  a  small  publication  on  the  Great  Pyramid,  and 
having  tried  to  master  and  digest  what  has  thus  far 
been  adduced  by  others,  he  now  ventures  a  larger  ex- 
hibition of  the  case  as  it  presents  itself  to  him.  The 
intricacies  of  mathematics  and  astronomy,  so  deeply 
involved  in  these  pyramid  investigations,  he  has  in- 


6 


PREFACE. 


tentionally  avoided,  seeking  rather  to  explain  for  the 
many  than  to  demonstrate  for  the  few.  He  has  con- 
fined himself  mostly  to  descriptions  and  statements  of 
results,  which  he  has  sought  to  give  in  a  way  which 
all  readers  of  average  intelligence  can  readily  follow 
and  understand. 

If  what  he  has  thus  produced  is  so  far  favored  as 
to  promote  a  more  general  and  deeper  inquiry  and 
study  into  this  surprising  and  most  perfect  monument 
of  primeval  man,  the  chief  object  of  the  author  will 
have  been  attained.  The  interest  awakened  by  the 
Lectures  at  their  oral  delivery  during  the  past  winter, 
and  the  numerous  applications  to  procure  them  in 
print,  also  encourage  the  belief  that,  with  the  notes 
and  amplifications  since  added,  they  may  perchance  be 
acceptable  and  serve  a  good  purpose.  With  the  hope, 
therefore,  of  thus  contributing  something  towards  the 
furtherance  of  correct  science,  true  philosophy,  and  a 
proper  Christianity,  the  author  herewith  commits 
these  sheets  to  the  press,  and  to  an  appreciative  and 
indulgent  public. 

To  the  Fourth  Edition. 

The  new  Lecture  now  added  to  this  book  has  been 
deemed  necessary  to  complete  the  presentation  of  the 
subject.  It  contains  all  that  the  author  has  at  present 
to  say  on  the  state  of  the  questions  involved.  A 
thorough  Index  to  the  whole  is  also  given.  It  is 
hoped  that  these  additions  will  greatly  enhance  the 
value  of  the  work. 

Philadelphia,  September,  1878. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface, 
Diagram, 


Page  3 
"  10 


LECTURE  FIRST. 


GENERAL  FACTS  AND  SCIENTIFIC  FEATURES. 


Introduction,  p.  13 ;  The  Chart,  p.  15 ;  The  History,  p.  21 ; 
Modern  Scientific  Theory,  p.  32 ;  Pyramid  Form  and  Pro- 
portions, p.  41;  Pyramid  Numbers,  p.  45;  Size  of  Great 
Pyramid,  p.  50  ;  Standard  of  Linear  Measure,  p.  57  ;  Weight 
and  Capacity  Measure,  p.  65 ;  The  Coffer  and  the  Ark  of 
Covenant,  p.  68  ;  Temperature,  p.  70 ;  A  Metrological  Mon- 
ument, p.  71 ;  The  Pyramid's  Astronomy,  p.  74 ;  The  Pyra- 
mid's Chronology,  p.  79 ;  Septenaries  and  Sabbaths,  p.  87 ; 
The  Centre  of  the  Universe,  p.  90 ;  Whence  this  Wisdom, 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  AND  BIBDICAL  CONNECTIONS. 

Our  Era,  p.  102 ;  Egypt's  Past,  p.  105 ;  The  Great  Pyramid's 
Disclosures,  p.  107  ;  The  Pyramid  and  the  Prophets,  p.  108 ; 
The  Pyramid  and  the  Book  of  Job,  p.  114;  The  Pyramid 
and  Christ,  p.  120  ;  The  Pyramid  and  the  Christian  Dispen- 
sation, p.  128;  The  Pyramid  and  Theology,  p.  137;  The 
Pyramid  and  the  Day  of  Judgment,  p.  150  ;  The  Pyramid 
and  the  Jew,  p.  153;  The  Pyramid  and  Heaven,  p.  159; 
The  Pyramid  and  the  Spiritual  Universe,  p.  163 ;  The  Pyra- 
mid and  Jerusalem,  p.  166. 


p.  91. 


LECTURE  SECOND. 


8 


CONTENTS. 


LECTUEE  THIRD. 

ANALYSIS  OF  TRADITIONS,  OPINIONS,  AND  RESULTS. 

The  Ancient  Traditions,  p.  172 ;  More  Modern  Opinions,  p.  178 ; 
The  Tomb  Theory,  p.  180 ;  Something  More  than  a  Tomb, 
p.  185 ;  Not  a  Temple  of  Idolatry,  p.  192  ;  Historic  Frag- 
ments, p.  194 ;  Who  was  Melchisedec,  p.  203 ;  The  Primitive 
Civilizers,  p.  210 ;  Job  and  Philitis,  p.  217  ;  Results,  p.  221 ; 
Primeval  Man,  p.  227  ;  Use  of  the  Pyramid  respecting  Faith, 
p.  231. 

LECTURE  FOURTH. 

SUPPLEMENTAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

(Added  to  Fourth  Edition.) 

Intent  of  this  Lecture,  p.  233 ;  A  Few  Testimonies,  p.  234 ;  Ad- 
verse Criticisms,  p.  240 ;  The  Verdict  of  "  Not  Proven,"  p. 
245 ;  Something  is  proven,  p.  255 ;  Adverse  Inquiries,  p.  265 ; 
The  Pyramid  and  False  Philosophy,  p.  280 ;  Some  Additional 
Particulars,  p.  291 ;  Outcome  of  the  Grand  Gallery,  p.  303 ; 
Time  of  the  End,  p.  310 ;  Conclusion,  p.  316. 

APPENDIX. 

EXTRACTS  FROM  RECENT  WRITERS. 

Rev.  Joseph  T.  Goodsir,  p.  319;  J.  Ralston  Skinner,  p.  324; 
Charles  Casey,  Esq.,  p.  326 ;  John  Taylor,  p.  327 ;  Prof. 
Piazzi  Smyth,  p.  329 ;  J.  G.,  in  Edinburg  Courant,  p.  324. 


Index,  (by  R.  F.  W.,)  pp.  337-346. 


"Every  student  who  enters  upon  a  scientific  pursuit,  espe- 
cially if  at  a  somewhat  advanced  period  of  life,  will  find  not 
only  that  he  has  much  to  learn,  but  much  also  to  unlearn.  As 
a  first  preparation,  therefore,  for  the  course  he  is  about  to  com- 
mence, he  must  loosen  his  hold  on  all  crude  and  hastily  adopted 
notions,  and  must  strengthen  himself,  by  something  of  an  effort 
and  a  resolve,  for  the  unprejudiced  admission  of  any  conclusion 
which  shall  appear  to  be  supported  by  careful  observation  and 
logical  argument,  even  should  it  prove  of  a  nature  adverse  to 
notions  he  may  have  previously  formed  for  himself,  or  taken 
up,  without  examination,  on  the  credit  of  others.  Such  an 
effort  is,  in  fact,  a  commencement  of  that  intellectual  discipline 
which  forms  one  of  the  most  important  ends  of  all  science." — 
Sir  John  Her&chel. 


"  The  fair  question  is,  does  the  newly  proposed  view  remove 
more  difficulties,  require  fewer  assumptions,  and  present  more 
consistency  with  observed  facts,  than  that  which  it  seeks  to 
supersede?  If  so,  the  philosopher  will  adopt  it,  and  the  world 
will  follow  the  philosopher." — Grove  s  Address  to  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 

(9) 


x^\\\j/////^ 

Is.  XIX.  ig.ao—  An  altar  TO  ^ 


XIX.  19.20.—   JSiN  ALTAR  TO    ^  '  >T  "  '  :    ^    IN  THE  MIDST  OF  EGYPT, 


THIRD  PYRAMID. 


SECOND  PYRAMID. 


INDICATIONS  ON  THE  DIAGRAM. 


A,  A,  A,  A,  Corner  sockets  of  the  Pyramid's  base. 

B,  B,  B,  Pyramid  cut  in  half,  viewed  from  the  east. 

C,  C,  C,  Entrance  passage. 

D,  D,  First  ascending  passage. 

E,  E,  E,  The  well. 

F,  The  subterranean  chamber. 

G,  G,  G,  Native  rock,  left  standing. 

H,  Horizontal  passage  to  Queen's  Chamber.  " 

I,  Sabbatic  or  Queen's  Chamber. 

J,  Grand  niche  in  Queen's  Chamber. 

K,  K,  Ventilating  tubes  to  Queen's  Chamber. 

L,  Grand  Gallery. 

M,  M,  M,  Rampstones,  incisions,  and  vertical  settings  along  the  sides  of 
Grand  Gallery's  base. 
N,  Great  step  at  south  end  of  Grand  Gallery. 
O,  Granite  leaf  in  anteroom  to  King's  Chamber. 
P,  P,  Anteroom  to  King's  Chamber. 
Q,  King's  Chamber. 
R.  Grand  Coffer  in  King's  Chamber. 
S,  S,  S,  S,  S,  Chambers  of  construction. 
T,  T,  Ventilating  tubes  to  King's  Chamber. 
U,  Supposed  undiscovered  Chamber. 

V,  V,  Cartouches  of  the  two  Kings,  Shufu  and  Nem-Shufu,  otherwise  called 
Cheops  or  Suphis,  and  Sen-Suphis  or  Noh-Suphis,  under  whose  co-regency 
the  Great  Pyramid  was  built. 

W,  W,  Sections  of  next  two  pyramids,  showing  their  interior  openings. 

X,  X,  Al  Mamoun's  forced  passage. 

Y,  Time-marks  of  the  building  of  the  pyramid. 

Z,  Z,  Z,  Z,  Casing-stones,  now  gone. 

4®»  The  shading  in  crossed  lines  indicates  what  parts  of  the  Pyramid  are 
red  granite;  the  other  portions,  as  far  as  known,  are  of  limestone,  of  a  color 
approaching  yellowish- white. 

By  the  use  of  a  magnifier  the  lettering  and  indications  on  the  diagram 
will  be  brought  out  in  ample  distinctness,  where  not  sufficiently  clear  to  the 
naked  eye. 


(11) 


As  wards,  who  long  suppose 
All  that  they  spend  to  be 
Their  guardian's  liberality, 
Not  what  inheritance  bestows, 
Their  thanks  to  others  ignorantly  pay 
For  that  which  they 
At  last  perceive  to  be  their  own, 
To  their  rich  ancestors  obliged  alone  ;  — 
So  we  vainly  thought 

Ourselves. to  Greece  much  bound 
For  arts  which  we  have  found 
To  be  from  higher  ages  brought, 
By  their  as  well  as  our  forefathers  taught. 

Gale's  "  Court  of  the  Gentiles.'* 

{  12) 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE: 

OR, 

THE  GREAT  PYRAMID  OF  EGYPT. 


gtatore  iiv$L 

GENERAL  FACTS  AND  SCIENTIFIC  FEATURES. 

NE  of  the  ablest  of  England's  Egypto- 
logical writers  has  said  that  Egypt  is 
the  anomaly  of  the  earth's  present  sur- 
face. The  very  adaptations  and  ad- 
justments of  the  air  and  solar  distances*  by 
which  vegetable  life  is  sustained  in  other  coun- 
tries, here  give  place  to  another  code,  framed 
expressly  for  the  Nile.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  it  with  regard  to  its  place  in  history.  It 
has  always  been  somewhat  aside  from  the 
general  current  of  affairs,  having  its  own 
unique  constitution  and  life,  and  yet  closely 
related  to  all  civilized  humanity.  Through 
whatever  path,  sacred  or  profane,  we  propose 
to  go  back  to  the  beginnings,  Egypt  is  never 
entirely  out  of  view.    Closely  secluded  from 

(13) 


14 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


all  the  rest  of  the  world — the  Japan  of  the 
ages — it  still  lies  at  the  gateway  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  Judea,  Greece  and  Rome;  intermingles 
with  all  the  Divine  administrations,  and  con- 
nects, in  one  way  or  another,  with  some  of  the 
most  famous  names  and  events  in  the  annals 
of  time. 

It  is  a  land  which  has  been  reclaimed  and 
created  by  the  Nile,  that  "  High  Priest  of 
streams," 

Whose  waves  have  cast 
More  riches  round  them,  as  the  current  rolled 
Through  many  climes  its  solitary  flood, 
Than  if  they  surged  with  gold. 

The  shoreline,  around  the  several  mouths  of 
this  mysterious  river,  describes  a  large  semi- 
circle, to  which  the  emptying  streams  run  out 
like  the  ribs  of  a  spread  fan,  or  like  so  many 
spokes  of  a  wheel.  The  centre  of  this  arc 
is  the  first  rocky  elevation  on  the  south,  about 
ten  miles  west  of  Cairo.  And,  strange  to  say, 
that  centre  is  artificially  and  indelibly  marked 
by  a  massive  stone  structure,  of  almost  solid 
cyclopean  masonry,  of  a  form  found  in  no 
other  country,  and  at  once  the  largest  and 
oldest  building  now  standing  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  This  hoary  monumental  pile  is  The 
Great  Pyramid  of  GizeJi,  of  which  it  is  my  - 
purpose  to  present  some  account. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


15 


The  Chart. 

In  order  to  aid  the  mind  by  means  of  the 
eye,  I  have  caused  a  diagram  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  to  be  prepared,  which,  if  first  care- 
fully examined,  will  materially  contribute  to  a 
clear  understanding  of  what  is  to  be  said.  A 
few  explanations  may  be  necessary,  and  hence 
are  here  given. 

The  large  square,  marked  by  heavy  black 
lines,  indicates  the  base  of  the  edifice,  which 
covers  about  thirteen  acres  of  ground,  equal  to 
aboutfour  ordinary  blocks  of  our  city,  including 
their  streets.  The  darkened  triangular  mass 
represents  the  body  of  the  pyramid,  showing 
the  slopes  of  the  sides  as  they  rise  to  a  point 
at  the  summit.  The  lines  on  the  outside 
mark  the  original  size,  as  covered  with  polished 
casing-stones,  all  of  which  have  been  quarried 
off  by  the  Moslems,  to  build  and  ornament 
the  mosques  and  houses  of  Cairo,  or  to  be  burnt 
for  lime.  About  thirty  feet  of  the  original  edi- 
fice has  also  disappeared  from  the  top,  leaving 
perhaps  twenty-four  feet  square  of  level  space, 
from  which  the  strongest  man  cannot  throw  a 
stone,  or  shoot  an  arrow,  far  enough  to  fall  clear 
of  the  base.  Even  with  so  much  of  the  summit 
gone,  it  is  still  more  than  double  the  height  of 


16 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  highest  steeple  or  tower  in  Philadelphia, 
and  higher  than  the  highest  known  steeple  or 
tower  in  the  world. 

The  elevation  shows  the  pyramid  cut  in 
half,  from  north  to  south,  in  order  to  give  a 
view  of  the  interior.  As  here  seen,  the  spec- 
tator is  looking  from  east  to  west.  There  are 
no  known  openings  but  those  which  appear 
in  these  open  and  unshaded  spaces.  The  dark 
square  toward  the  top  (U)  indicates  an  imag- 
inary room  which  is  believed  to  exist,  but  not 
yet  discovered. 

The  only  entrance  into  the  edifice,  as  left  by 
the  builders,  is  that  low  and  narrow  square 
tube,  which  begins  high  up  on  the  north  side, 
and  runs  obliquely  down  to  an  unfinished 
room  in  the  solid  rock,  about  one  hundred  feet 
below  the  levelled  surface  on  which  the  pyramid 
stands.  The  size  of  this  entrance  passage  is 
not  quite  four  feet  high,  and  a  little  over  three 
feet  five  inches  wide.  A  man  needs  to  stoop 
considerably  to  pass  through  it,  and  to  take 
heed  to  his  steps  on  account  of  the  steep  incline, 
originally  finished  as  smooth  as  a  slate,  from 
top  to  bottom. 

The  first  upward  passage  is  directly  over 
the  entrance-tube,  and  is  of  the  same  general 
size  and  character.    It  follows  the  same  direc- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


17 


tion  from  north  to  south,  and  conducts  to  a 
high,  long  and  beautifully  finished  opening, 
whose  floor-line  is  continuous  with  the  passage 
of  ascent  to  it.  This  is  the  Grand  Gallery, 
twenty-eight  feet  high,  each  of  whose  sides  is 
built  of  seven  courses  of  overlapping  stones. 
It  is  covered  by  thirty-six  large  stones  stretch- 
ing across  the  top.  It  is  a  little  over  eighteen 
hundred  and  eighty-two  inches  long,  and  sud- 
denly terminates  against  an  end  wall,  which 
leans  inward.  The  further  opening  is  low  and 
small  again,  leading  into  a  sort  of  narrow 
anteroom,  in  which  a  double  and  heavy  granite 
block  hangs  from  grooves  in  the  side  walls. 

Then  follows  another  low  entrance  leading 
into  what  is  called  the  King's  Chamber,  the 
highest  and  largest  known  room  in  the  edifice. 
In  this  chamber  stands  the  only  article  of  fur- 
niture in  the  pyramid,  the  celebrated  granite 
Coffer.  Above  this  room  are  shown  what  are 
called  the  chambers  of  construction,  indicating 
how  the  builders  arranged  to  keep  the  weight 
of  the  superincumbent  mass  from  crushing  in 
the  ceiling  of  the  King's  Chamber,  which  ceil- 
ing consists  of  nine  powerful  blocks  of  granite, 
stretching  from  one  side  to  the  other.  The 
dark  or  crossed  shadings  about  this  chamber 
indicate  the  stones  to  be  granite,  all  the  rest 
of  the  building  not  so  marked  is  of  ligfyt 


18 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


limestone.  This  room  is  an  oblong  square, 
four  hundred  and  twelve  inches  long,  two  hun- 
dred and  six  broad  and  two  hundred  and  thirty 
high.  It  is  ventilated  by  two  tubes,  running 
from  it  to  the  outer  surface. 

Directly  under  the  Grand  Gallery,  and  run- 
ning in  the  same  direction  from  north  to  south, 
is  a  horizontal  passage,  which  starts  on  a  level 
with  the  entrance  into  the  Grand  Gallery,  and 
leads  to  what  is  called  the  Queen's  Chamber. 
The  floor  of  this  room,  if  floor  it  may  be 
called,  measures  two  hundred  and  five  by  two 
hundred  and  twenty-six  inches,  and  stands  on 
the  twenty-fifth  course  of  masonry,  as  the 
King's  Chamber  stands  on  the  fiftieth  course. 
It  has  a  pointed  arch  ceiling.    Though  excel- 
lently finished,  this  room  has  neither  ornament 
nor  furniture.    There  is  a  line  marked  evenly 
around  its  sides  at  the  height  of  the  passage 
of  entrance,  and  a  remarkable  niche  in  its 
east  wall,  the  top  of  which  is  twenty-five  inches 
across  and  twenty-five  inches  south  from  the 
vertical  centre  of  the  wall  into  which  it  is 
cut."   This  room  also  has  two  tubes  leading 
from  it,  only  recently  discovered,  which  the 
builders  left  concealed  by  a  thin  scale  over 
each.    They  are  cut  regularly,  and  approach 
inward  through  the  walls  to  within  one  inch 
of  the  inner  surface,  which  was  left  as  though 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


19 


no  such  openings  existed  back  of  it.  Whether 
these  tubes  extend  to  the  outer  surface  has 
not  been  ascertained. 

Nearly  three  feet  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Grand  Gallery,  on  the  west  side,  is  a  torn  and 
ragged  opening,  in  which  is  the  gaping  mouth 
of  a  strange  well,  running  irregularly  and 
somewhat  tortuously  down  through  the  ma- 
sonry and  original  rock,  till  it  strikes  the  main 
entrance  a  short  way  above  the  subterranean 
chamber.  Nearly  half  the  way  down  it  ex- 
pands into  a  rough  grotto  or  wide  bulge  in  the 
opening,  making  a  large  irregular  subterranean 
bowl. 

Below  the  entrance  passage,  and  a  little  to 
the  west  of  it,  the  dark  and  rugged  opening 
shown  represents  the  hole  made  by  one  of  the 
Mohammedan  caliphs,  about  A.D.  825,  who 
thus  cut  into  the  pyramid  in  search  of  treas- 
ures, not  knowing  that  there  was  an  open 
passage  not  far  above. 

The  small  black  squares  represented  at  the 
corners  of  the  base  indicate  the  peculiar  sock- 
ets, cut  eight  inches  into  the  living  rock,  into 
which  the  foundation  corner-stones  were  set. 
These  are  characteristics  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
in  which  it  differs  from  all  others,  and  are  of 
special  value,  in  the  present  ruinous  condition 


20 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  the  edifice,  in  ascertaining  the  exact  original 
corners  and  the  precise  lengths  of  the  sides. 

The  encompassing  circle,  drawn  to  the  radius 
of  the  pyramid's  height,  indicates  the  mathe- 
matical idea  to  which  the  whole  building  is 
constructed  ;  the  length  of  the  four  sides  of 
the  square  base  being  the  same  as  the  circum- 
ference described  by  a  sphere,  of  which  the 
vertical  height  is  the  radius.  It  shows  the 
edifice  in  that  remarkable  feature,  to  wit,  a 
practical  squaring  of  the  circle. 

The  smaller  pyramids  below  represent  the 
next  in  size  and  age  to  the  Great  Pyramid. 
They  are  introduced  for  no  other  purpose  than 
to  show  the  difference  of  interior  between  them 
and  it ;  on  which  difference  an  argument  is 
founded  to  prove  them  mere  ignorant  imitations 
of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  not  at  all  to  be 
classed  with  it  in  intellectuality  and  design. 

The  hieroglyphics  are  reproductions  of  the 
cartouches  of  the  two  kings,  Shufu  and  Nem- 
Shufu,  who  occupied  the  throne  at  the  time  the 
Great  Pyramid  was  built.  They  were  dis- 
covered by  Colonel  Howard  Vyse,  in  1837, 
roughty  painted  on  the  undressed  sides  of  the 
stones  in  the  upper  chambers  of  construction, 
which  were  never  opened  until  he  forced  a 
way  up  to  them. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


21 


The  History. 

There  is  no  known  time  within  our  historic 
periods  when  this  pyramid  was  not  famous. 
Herodotus,  the  so-called  Father  of  History,  as 
early  as  445  B.C.,  made  a  personal  examina- 
tion of  it,  and  devoted  some  most  interesting 
paragraphs  to  it.  It  was  then  already  consid- 
ered very  ancient.  Traditional  accounts  of  its 
erection  he  gathered  through  an  interpreter 
from  an  Egyptian  priest,  and  these  he  has 
recorded  with  much  particularity.  His  own 
appreciation  of  the  structure,  and  of  the  cause- 
way over  which  the  materials  were  conveyed, 
was  that  of  wonder  and  admiration.* 

Homer  does  not  seem  to  make  any  allusion 
to  it,  perhaps  for  the  reason  that  it  had  no 
connection  with  mythology,  or  with  any  of  his 
heroes. 

Eratosthenes  (236  B.C.),  Diodorus  Siculus 
(60  B.C.),  and  Strabo  and  Pliny  (about  the 
beginning  of  our  era),  all  wrote  of  it.  The 
latter,  in  referring  to  the  Pyramids,  also  says, 
"  The  authors  who  have  written  upon  them 
are  Herodotus,  Euhemerus,  Durius  Samius, 
Aristagoras,  Dionysius,  Artemedorus,  Alex- 


*  See  Jlawlinson's  Herodotus,  Book  II,  chap.  124,  vol.  2,  pp. 
169- 176. 


22 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ander,  Polyhistor,  Butorides,  Autisthenes, 
Demetrius,  Demoteles,  and  Apion."* 

But  though  the  Great  Pyramid  has  been 
standing  in  its  place  for  4000  years,  it  is  only 
within  a  very  recent  period  that  there  has  been 
any  rational  appreciation  of  it.  For  3000 
3'ears  of  its  existence,  up  to  the  time  of  the 
mediaeval  Caliph  Al  Mamoun,  no  mortal  man, 
perhaps,  ever  penetrated  into  its  upper  pas- 
sages and  main  openings.  Certainly,  for  many 
centuries  before  him,  it  was  completely  closed 
up,  no  entrance  to  it  being  known  any  more 
to  any  human  being. 

This  son  of  Haroun  Al  Raschid  of  the  "Ara- 
bian Nights,"  flattered  and  almost  worshipped 
as  a  god,  was  so  wrought  upon  by  the  romanc- 
ers and  fabulists  of  his  court  that  he  was  led 
to  believe  the  Great  Pyramid  crowded  full  of 
precious  treasures.  All  the  dazzling  riches, 
jewels,  medicines,  charms,  and  sciences  of 
Sheddad  Ben  Ad,  the  Mussulman's  great  ante- 
diluvian king  of  the  earth,  were  made  to 
glitter  before  the  avaricious  fancy  of  Al  Ma- 
moun. He  therefore  set  his  hosts  at  work  to 
quarry  out  an  opening  into  the  wonderful 
treasure-house,  full  of  astonishing  riches  in- 


*  Nat.  Hist.,  torn.  36,  sec.  16. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


23 


deed,  but  not  of  the  sort  of  which  he  was 
dreaming. 

With  the  crude  instruments  and  poor  knowl- 
edge which  his  hordes  possessed,  it  proved  no 
easy  task  to  cut  through  that  grand  masonry. 
Again  and  again  the  thing  was  pronounced 
impossible.  But  Mohammedan  fanaticism  and 
tyranny  proved  equal  to  the  undertaking  ;  not, 
however,  without  straining  everything  to  the 
very  utmost,  and  Al  Mamoun's  own  power  to 
the  point  of  revolution.  The  excavation  was 
driven  in  full  one  hundred  feet,  with  every- 
thing solid  up  to  that  point.  Having  expended 
all  this  labor  to  no  effect,  all  further  effort  was 
about  to  be  abandoned,  when  a  singular,  per- 
haps providential,  occurrence  served  to  reani- 
mate exertion.  The  sound  of  a  falling  stone 
in  some  open  space  not  far  beyond  them  was 
heard,  which  incited  them  to  dig  and  bore  on, 
till  presently  they  broke  through  into  the  reg- 
ular passage-way.  They  struck  this  tube  just 
where  the  first  ascending  passage  forks  off  from 
the  descending  one.  The  stone  which  had 
fallen  was  one  which  hung  in  the  top  of  the 
entrance  passage,  quite  concealing  the  fact  of 
another  and  upward  way.  But  the  newly 
uncovered  passage  they  found  stopped  by 
a  heavy  stone  portcullis,  fitted  into  it  from 


24 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


above  as  tight  as  a  cork  in  the  mouth  of  a 
bottle.  It  was  impossible  to  remove  it.  It 
remains  there  still.  Al  Mamoun  caused  his 
men  to  dig  and  blast  around  it.  But  even 
beyond  the  portcullis,  the  whole  passage  was 
filled  up  with  great  stones  from  top  to  bottom. 
Removing  one,  the  next  slid  down  in  its  place; 
and  so  another  and  another,  each  of  which 
was  removed,  till  at  length  the  entire  upward 
avenue  was  freed  from  obstructions.  Up  went 
the  bearded  crew,  shouting  the  name  of  Allah, 
in  full  confidence  that  the  promised  treasures 
were  now  within  their  grasp.  "  Up,"  as  Prof. 
Smyth  describes  it,  "  up  no  less  than  one 
hundred  and  ten  feet  of  the  steep  incline, 
crouched  hands  and  knees  and  chin  together, 
through  a  passage  of  royally  polished  lime- 
stone, but  only  forty-seven  inches  high  and 
forty-one  broad,  they  had  painfully  to  crawl, 
with  their  torches  burning  low."  Thence  they 
emerged  into  the  Grand  Gallery,  long  and  tall, 
seven  times  as  high  as  the  passage  through 
which  they  came,  empty,  however,  and  darker 
than  night.  Still  the  way  was  narrow  and 
steep,  only  six  feet  wide  at  any  point,  and 
contracted  to  three  at  the  floor,  though  too 
high  for  the  power  of  their  smoky  lights  to 
illuminate.  Up  and  up  the  smooth  and  long 
ascending  floor-line  the   marauders  pushed 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


25 


their  slippery  and  doubtful  way,  till  near  the 
end  of  the  Grand  Gallery.  Then  they  clam- 
bered over  a  three-foot  step ;  then  bowed  their 
heads  beneath  a  low  doorway,  bounded  on  all 
sides  with  awful  blocks  of  frowning  red  gran- 
ite; and  then  leaped  without  further  hin- 
drance into  the  Grand  Chamber,  the  first  to 
enter  since  the  Great  Pyramid  was  built.* 


*  It  is  barely  possible  that  there  was  once  a  forced  entrance 
into  the  upper  parts  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  long  before  the 
Mohammedan  times.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Grand  Gallery 
there  is  a  missing  ramp-stone,  which  once  covered  the  mouth 
of  the  well.  This  ramp-stone  seems  to  have  been  forced  out 
from  below  upwards,  as  a  fragment  of  it  is  still  seen  adhering 
to  the  next  stone,  held  by  the  firm  cement  of  the  joint.  Hence 
it  is  surmised  that  some  fanatics  of  the  dynasties  of  Ethiopic 
intruders,  or  the  Persian  conquerors  after  them,  forcibly  en- 
tered in  search  of  treasures  by  means  of  the  well,  and  then 
closed  up  the  entrance  again  to  conceal  what  they  had  done. 
This  is  thought  the  more-  probable,  as  the  other  pyramids, 
which  were  used  as  royal  tombs,  seem  to  have  been  entered  and 
rifled  at  some  remote  period  of  the  past.  But  when  we  consider 
some  of  the  high  prophetic  meanings  connected  with  the 
Grand  Gallery,  and  of  that  well  out  of  which  it  takes  its  begin- 
ning, we  would  rather  infer  that  the  builders  themselves  broke 
out  that  ramp-stone,  or  sealed  on  that  fragment  in  a  way  in- 
dicative of  violent  bursting  out  from  below,  as  part  of  the  great 
intention  and  teaching  of  the  mighty  fabric.  This  is  the  more 
probable,  (1)  because  no  part  of  that  missing  ramp-stone  has 
ever  been  found  ;  (2)  because  of  the  extraordinary  difficulty  of 
breaking  away  such  a  stone  from  within  the  well  ;  and  (3) 
the  difficulty  of,  and  absence  of  motive  for,  a  removal  of  the 
stone  if  broken  in  by  the  supposed  marauders.  Hence  we 
conclude  that  the  situation  was  intentionally  so  left  by  the 


26 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


A  noble  chamber  did  these  maddened  Mos- 
lems also  find  it,  clean  and  garnished,  every 
surface  of  polished  red  granite,  and  everything 
indicative  of  master  builders.  But  the  coveted 
gold  and  treasures  were  not  there.  Nothing 
was  there  but  black  and  solemn  emptiness. 
There  stood  a  solitary  stone  chest,  indeed, 
fashioned  out  of  a  single  block,  polished  within 
and  without,  and  sonorous  as  a  bell,  but  open, 
lidless,  and  empty  as  the  space  around  it.  The 
caliph  was  astounded.  His  quarriers  muttered 
their  anathemas  over  their  deception  into  such 
enormous,  unrequited,  and  fruitless  labors. 
Nor  could  Al  Mamoun  quiet  the  outbreaking 
indignation  toward  him  and  his  courtiers, 
except  by  one  of  those  saintly  frauds  in  which 
Mohammedanism  is  so  facile.  He  commanded 
the  discontents  to  go  dig  at  a  spot  which  he 
indicated,  where  they  soon  came  upon  a  sum 
of  gold,  exactly  equal  to  the  wages  claimed  for 
their  work,  which  gold  he  had  himself  secretly 
deposited  at  the  place.  When  it  was  found, 
he  could  not  repress  his  astonishment  that 
those  mighty  kings  before  the  flood  were  so 
full  of  inspiration  as  to  be  able  to  count  so 


builders  themselves,  and  that  no  one  after  them  had  entered 
the  upper  parts  of  the  Great  Pyramid  prior  to  Al  Mamoun's 
hordes. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


27 


truly  what  it  would  cost  in  Arab  labor  to  break 
open  their  pyramid ! 

But  the  great  mysterious  structure  was  now 
open.  Henceforward  any  one  with  interest 
and  courage  enough  to  attempt  it  might  enter, 
examine,  study,  and  find  out  what  he  could. 

For  centuries  the  Arabians  went  in  and  out 
betimes,  when  able  to  overcome  their  super- 
stitious fears.  Some  of  their  marvellous  tales 
of  small  miracles  and  vulgar  wonders  have 
been  put  on  record.  But  apart  from  the  mere 
fact  of  the  forcible  entrance  by  Al  Mamoun,  it 
is  agreed  that  scarcely  a  shred  of  their  testi- 
mony is  at  all  credible.* 

*  The  principal  Arab  writers  who  give  accounts  of  the 
Pyramids  are  Abou  Ma  Sher  (died  272  of  the  Hegira),  Ebn 
Khordadbeh  (died  about  300  of  same  era),  Abou  Rihan  Mo- 
hammed  (about  430),  Masoudi  (died  345),  Abou  Abdullah  Mo- 
hammed (died  454),  Abd  Alatif  (born  557),  Shehab  Eddin 
Ahmed  (died  about  745).  Ebn  Abd  Al  Hokm  Makizi  (died 
about  845),  Soyuti  (died  911),  etc.  The  dates  given  are  those 
of  the  Hegira,  to  which  add  622  to  give  the  year  of  our  era. 

The  worth  of  what  these  men  have  recorded,  may  be  learned 
from  the  following  testimonies  : 

"  The  authority  of  Arab  writers  is  not  always  to  be  relied 
on." — Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson,  Murray1  s  Handbook,  1867, 
p.  168. 

"  The  only  fact  which  seems  to  be  established  by  the  Eastern 
authors  to  whom  we  have  now  referred  (the  Arabians),  is  the 
opening  of  the  Great  Pyramid  by  Al  Mamoun  ;  and  even  of 
that,  no  distinct  or  rational  account  exists." — Col.  Howard 
Vyse. 

Prof.  John  Greaves  (1637)  quotes  from  some  of  these  writers, 


28 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


We  must  therefore  depend  on  the  explora- 
tions and  accounts  of  the  more  observant,  ap- 
preciative, and  philosophic  European  mind  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  In  some 
instances,  however,  the  case  is  not  much  im- 
proved. Sir  John  Mandeville,  perhaps  the 
greatest  English  traveller  of  the  middle  ages, 
who  spent  thirty-three  years  in  wanderings 
through  the  East,  visited  Egypt  and  the  Pyra- 
mids about  A. D.  1350,  and  has  left  us  a  theory 
concerning  them,  but  confesses  that  he  was 
afraid  to  enter  them,  because  they  were  re- 
puted to  be  full  of  serpents  !* 

The  earliest  writer  of  modern  times  from 
whom  we  have  any  scientific  data  with  regard 
to  the  Great  Pyramid  is  Mr.  John  Greaves, 
Savilian  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  Uni- 

and  adds,  "  Thus  far  the  Arabians,  which  traditions  of  theirs 
are  little  better  than  a  romance." 

Professor  Smyth,  after  trying  and  testing  the  whole  body  of 
accounts,  says,  "  We  find  ourselves  standing  again  just  where 
Prof.  Greaves  stood  in  1637,  obliged  to  reject  every  rag  of  testi- 
mony from  the  followers  of  the  false  prophet." — Antiquity  of 
Intellectual  Man,"  p.  277. 

*  Other  European  authors  who  have  given  accounts  of  the 
Pyramids  are  Cyriacus,  A.D.  1440;  Breydenbach,  1486; 
Bellonius,  1553  ;  Johannes  Helfricus,  1565  ;  Lawrence  Alder- 
sey,  1586  ;  Jeane  Palerma,  1581  ;  Prosper  Alpinus,  1591  ; 
Baumgarten,  1594;  Sandys,  1610 ;  Pietro  Delia  Vale,  1616; 
De  Villamont,  1618;  Rabbi  Benjamin,  1633;  most  of  whom 
themselves  visited  the  Pyramids. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


29 


versity  of  Oxford.  At  his  own  private  expense 
he  left  London  in  the  spring  of  1637  for  the 
special  purpose  of  thoroughly  exploring  these 
ancient  edifices,  and  in  1646  published  his 
Pi/ramidographia,  giving  the  results  of  his 
laborious  observations  and  measurements, 
which  are  of  particular  worth  in  obtaining  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  this  subject.  But  he 
was  soon  followed  by  other  explorers,  French, 
English,  Dutch,  Germans,  and  Italians.* 

Special  additions  were  made  to  the  stock  of 
Pyramid  information  by  Nathaniel  Davison, 
British  Consul  at  Algiers  (1763),  who  resided 
three  years  in  Egypt,  frequently  visited  the 
Great  Pyramid,  discovered  the  first  of  those 
chambers  of  construction  above  the  so-called 
King's  Chamber,  drew  a  profile  of  the  original 
casing-stones,  and  made  the  first  diagram  of 
the  supposed  appearance  of  this  pillar  when  it 
stood  complete.f 

*  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  De  Monconys  (1647), 
Thevenot  (1655),  Melton  (1661),  Vausleb  (1664),  Kircher 
(1666),  Lebrun  (1674),  Maillet  (1692-1708),  De  Careri  (1693), 
Lucas  (1699),  Veryard  (1701),  Quatremere  (1701),  Egmont 
(1709),  Perizonius  (1711),  Pere  Sicard  (1715),  Shaw  (1721), 
Norden  (1737),  Pococke  (1743),  Dr.  Perry  (1743),  Four- 
mount  (1755),  Niebuhr  (1761). 

f  The  results  of  Davison's  labors  are  contained  in  the 
Memoirs  of  Rev.  Robert  Walpole,  and  are  alluded  to  at  some 
length  in  vol.  19  of  the  Quarterly  Review.    Other  writers  on  the 


30 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


When  Napoleon  was  engaged  with  his  mili- 
tary operations  in  Egypt  (1799),  the  French 
savants  who  accompanied  his  expedition  also 
did  important  service  in  furnishing  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  Great  Pyramid.  They  surveyed 
the  ground.  They  determined  the  value  of  the 
location  in  trigonometrical  relations.  They 
found  two  of  the  "  encastrements,"  or  incisions 
in  the  rock,  meant  to  serve  as  sockets  for  the 
original  corner-stones  of  the  foundation.  Their 
observations  and  mostly  very  accurate  mea- 
surements, with  cuts,  engravings,  and  descrip- 
tions of  the  Great  Pyramid,  were  subsequently 
published,  in  large  and  elegant  form.* 

Very  splendid  contributions  to  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject  were  made  by  Colonel  (after- 
wards General)  Howard  Vyse  in  his  three  large 
royal  octavo  volumes,  containing  the  results 
of  seven  months'  labor,  with  a  hundred  or  more 
assistants,  in  exploring  and  measuring  the 

subject  after  him,  were  Bruce  (1768),  L'Abbe  De  Binos  (1777), 
Savary  (1777),  Volney  (1783),  Browne  (1792-98),  Devon 
(1799). 

*  See  Colonel  Coutelle's  remarks  (1801),  and  particularly  M. 
Jomard's  descriptions  (1801). 

Other  writers  are  Hamilton  (1801),  Dr.  Whitman  (1801), 
Dr.  Wilson  (1805),  M.  Caviglia  (1817),  M.  Belzoni  (1817), 
Signore  Athanasi  (1817),  Dr.  Kichardson  (1817),  Mr.  Web- 
ster (1827),  Wilkinson  (1831),  Mr.  St.  John  (1832),  Captain 
Scott  and  Mr.  Agnew  (1837). 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


31 


Pyramids,  in  1837.  It  is  he  especially  who, 
at  the  expense  of  a  large  fortune,  laid  the  foun- 
dations for  some  of  the  most  brilliant  and 
important  developments  to  be  found  in  all  the 
scientific  world  of  our  century.  He  reopened 
the  ragged  hole  driven  into  the  stupendous 
edifice  by  the  semi-savages  of  Al  Mamoun,  and 
made  some  others  himself,  part  of  which  were 
equally  fruitless.  He  uncovered  again  the  two 
indented  sockets  of  the  north  base  corners. 
He  discovered  and  reopened  the  remarkable 
ventilating  tubes  of  the  King's  Chamber.  He 
cut  a  way  through  the  masonry  above  that 
chamber,  and  found  four  other  openings  besides 
the  one  discovered  by  Davison.  He  found  in 
those  recesses  various  quarry-marks  in  red 
paint,  proving  that  writing  was  known  and 
practiced  in  the  fourth  Egyptian  dynasty. 
Among  these  marks  were  the  cartouches  of  the 
co-sovereign  brothers  who  reigned  at  the  time 
the  Great  Pyramid  was  built.  He  also  found 
some  of  the  original  casing-stones  still  fast  in 
their  places,  as  well  as  portions  of  a  splendid 
pavement  which  once  surrounded  the  edifice. 
In  addition  to  these  new  discoveries  he  fully 
confirmed  what  had  been  ascertained  before, 
and  served  to  bring  this  marvellous  structure 
within  the  sphere  of  modern  scientific  investi* 


32 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


gation.  Through  him,  Sir  John  Herschel  es- 
poused the  belief  that  the  Great  Pyramid 
possesses  a  truly  astronomical  character,  and 
that  its  narrow  tubic  entrance  pointed  to  some 
polar  star,  from  which  the  date  of  the  build- 
ing is  determinable.  At  Vyse's  instance  this 
astronomer  made  the  calculation,  and  found 
the  pointing  to  indicate  the  same  period  of 
time  which,  on  other  and  independent  data, 
had  been  concluded  as  the  period  of  the  Great 
Pyramid's  building.  And  thus  was  laid  the 
basis  from  which  a  new  theory  of  this  marvel- 
lous pillar  has  sprung. 

The  Modern  Scientific  Theory. 

Taking  what  had  thus  been  produced  with 
regard  to  the  Great  Pyramid,  John  Taylor 
(one  of  the  firm  of  Taylor  &  Hessey,  publishers 
of  the  London  Magazine,  and  subsequently 
of  the  firm  of  Taylor  &  Wallace,  publishers 
to  the  University  of  London),  undertook  to 
wrestle  with  the  questions :  Why  was  this 
pyramid  built?  And  who  built  it?  Canvass- 
ing the  whole  problem  in  the  light  of  history, 
religion,  and  science,  he  came  to  some  very 
surprising  conclusions,  involving  an  altogether 
new  departure  in  Pyramid  investigations,  and 
enunciating  a  number  of  facts  with  regard  to 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


33 


the  mathematical  features  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, which  once  were  ridiculed,  but  are  now 
generally  admitted  as  demonstrably  true.  In 
1859  he  published  a  small  volume,  in  which  he 
proposed  "  to  recover  a  lost  leaf  in  the  world's 
history,"  and  gave  his  processes  and  the  results. 
Without  having  seen  the  Great  Pyramid,  but 
on  the  basis  of  the  facts  recorded  by  others, 
he  gave  it  as  his  theory  and  conviction  that 
the  real  architects  of  this  edifice  were  not 
Egyptians,  but  men  of  quite  another  faith  and 
branch  of  the  human  family,  who,  by  an  im- 
pulse and  commission  from  heaven,  and  by  the 
special  aid  of  the  Most  High,  induced  and 
superintended  the  erection  of  that  mighty 
structure,  as  a  memorial  for  long  after  times, 
to  serve  as  a  witness  of  inspiration,  and  of  the 
truth  and  purposes  of  God,  over  against  the 
falsities  and  corruptions  of  a  degenerate  and 
ever  degenerating  world.  In  other  words,  he 
claimed  to  find,  in  the  shape,  arrangements, 
measures,  and  various  indications  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  an  intellectuality  and  numerical 
knowledge  of  grand  cosmical  phenomena  of 
earth  and  heavens,  which  neither  Egypt  nor 
any  of  the  nations  possessed,  or  could  even 
understand,  from  a  thousand  years  ago,  back 
to  the  origin  of  nations. 

3 


34 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


This  was  a  bold,  striking,  and  far-reaching 
presentation,  and  one  well  worthy  of  the  atten- 
tion of  the  thinkers  of  our  age,  both  religious 
and  philosophical.  Very  few,  however,  paid 
much  attention  to  his  vigorous  little  book. 
Yet  the  grounds  on  which  he  proceeded  and 
the  processes  employed,  were  so  purely  within 
the  domain  of  science,  and  hence  so  easy  of 
decisive  refutation  if  not  true,  that  scientists 
could  hardly  be  fair  to  their  profession  without 
some  investigation  of  the  matter.  Sir  John 
Herschel  was  certainly  much  impressed  with 
some  of  the  results  and  conclusions  brought 
out  by  Mr.  Taylor,  and  also  very  powerfully 
used  them  in  his  papers  on  the  standard  of 
British  measures,  over  against  the  falsely 
founded  system  of  metres,  originated  by  the 
French  infidels  and  communists.. 

A  few  years  after  the  appearance  of  Mr. 
Taylor's  book,  it  arrested  the  attention  and 
enlisted  the  interest  of  Prof.  C.  Piazzi  Smyth, 
of  Edinburgh,  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland. 
Having  investigated  the  subject  to  some  extent, 
he  presented  a  paper  to  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh,  in  1864,  giving  the  results  of  his 
researches  and  calculations  to  test  the  truth  of 
some  of  Mr.  Taylor's  startling  presentations, 
and  setting  forth  his  acquiescence  in  many  of 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


35 


the  details,  though  on  somewhat  different 
grounds.  These  investigations  and  conclusions 
of  Prof.  Smyth  were  published  the  same  year, 
in  his  book,  Our  Inheritance  in  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, a  new,  revised,  and  enlarged  edition  of 
which  was  published  in  1874.  This  book,  in 
its  revised  form,  is  perhaps  the  best  from  which 
to  get  a  full  impression,  within  a  limited  space, 
of  the  nature  and  grounds  of  the  modern 
scientific  theory  on  the  subject. 

The  better  to  satisfv  himself,  and  in  order 
to  clear  up  some  matters  of  uncertainty  in  the 
case,  Prof.  Smyth,  at  his  own  expense,  went 
to  Egypt,  and  spent  the  winter  and  spring  of 
1865,  devoting  the  time  to  the  work  of  testing, 
by  the  best  modern  scientific  appliances,  what 
others  had  recorded  concerning  this  pyramid. 
To  facilitate  his  operations,  he  and  his  brave 
wife  took  up  their  abode  in  some  of  the  tombs 
in  the  vicinity,  where  they  lived  and  worked 
from  the  first  of  January  to  the  end  of  April. 
The  results  of  these  self-denying  labors  were 
given  to  the  public  in  three  brilliant  volumes, 
in  1867,  entitled,  Life  and  Work  at  the  Great 
Pyramid,  with  a  sequel  in  the  year  following, 
On  the  Antiquity  of  Intellectual  Man. 

From  the  publication  of  these  very  valuable 
books,  various  discussions  in  learned  societies 


36 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  the  public  prints  followed ;  new  investi- 
gators entered  upon  the  subject ;  and  many 
converts  to  the  new  theory  were  made.  A 
number  of  able  papers  appeared,  confirming 
and  enlarging  what  had  previously  been  de- 
duced, and  fully  supporting  the  scientifically 
grounded  and  growing  belief  that  this  vener- 
able pillar  has  about  it  something  more  than 
a  mere  tomb  for  some  rich  and  ambitious 
old  Pharaoh,  and  something  infinitely  more 
than  was  ever  in  the  power  of  the  Egyptians 
to  originate,  or  even  to  understand.  In  other 
words,  that  it  was  designed  and  erected  under 
the  special  guidance  and  direction  of  God,  and 
bears  a  somewhat  similar  relation  to  the  phys- 
ical universe  which  the  Bible  bears  to  the 
spiritual. 

Upon  first  blush  such  a  theory  would  seem 
to  be  the  very  height  of  fanaticism  and  non- 
sense. And  so  a  few,  in  their  offended  conceit 
and  prejudice,  rather  than  from  any  solid 
scientific  reasons,  have  regarded  it.  As  com- 
monly, in  all  such  cases,  the  power  of  coarse 
ridicule  has  been  brought  to  bear  against  it ; 
but  thus  far  no  candid  and  thorough  attempt 
has  been  made  to  overcome  the  many  solid  and 
outstanding  evidences  on  which  it  rests.  Good- 
sir,  in  his  volume  on  Ethnic  Inspiration,  has 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


37 


justly  said,  "The  scientific  symbolism  of  that 
world's  wonder  now  stands  nearly  disclosed 
to  view,  resting  on  its  own  independent  basis 
of  proof,  which  is  not  only  vouched  for,  but 
defended  by  advocates  undeniably  competent 
to  their  work,  and  as  yet  occupying  inexpugn- 
ably  their  ground."  Every  attack  upon  it 
thus  far  has  resulted  in  such  signal  failure  as 
the  more  to  confirm  it. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  here  to  go  into  all 
the  particulars,  processes,  and  scientific  induc- 
tions on  which  this  theory  rests.  These  are 
given,  in  all  their  surprising  force,  in  the  able 
original  works  to  which  I  have  referred,  and 
to  which  I  direct  all  who  wish  to  sift  the  matter 
thoroughly  or  inform  themselves  fully.  Mathe- 
maticians and  scientists  will  find  enough  there 
to  call  all  their  knowledge  into  play,  and  to 
occupy  their  inquiries  and  skill  for  as  much 
time  as  they  may  have  to  give.  My  office  is 
of  a  much  simpler  and  easier  sort.  A  brief 
resume  of  the  principal  facts,  to  enable  those 
who  hear  me  to  form  some  fair  opinion  of  the 
matter,  is  all  that  I  propose,  feeling  that  if  I 
can  succeed  in  this,  I  shall  have  done  some- 
thing of  worth  in  making  known  the  wonders 
of  wisdom  so  long  ago  treasured  up  in  the 
Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh. 


38 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


The  Various  Pyramids. 

There  are  numerous  pyramids  in  Egypt. 
Including  all  sizes  and  forms,  perhaps  three 
dozen  may  still  be  found.  They  belong  to  dif- 
ferent ages,  from  B.C.  2170  down  to  B.C.  1800. 
Externally,  they  all  are  more  or  less  of  the 
same  general  form.  A  few  are  not  much  in- 
ferior in  dimensions,  materials,  and  outward 
finish  to  the  Great  Pyramid  itself.  But  there 
is  one,  the  northernmost  of  the  line,  which 
has  ever  held  the  pre-eminence,  and  which  has 
always  been  regarded  with  the  greatest  interest. 
The  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  speak  of  three 
pyramids  in  Egypt,  and  they  describe  this  as 
"  the  golden  mountain,"  and  the  other  two  as 
mountains  of  silver  and  less  valuable  material. 
By  a  sort  of  intuition,  all  nations  and  tongues 
unite  in  recognizing  this  one  as  The  Great 
Pyramid.  It  covers  the  most  space.  It  occu- 
pies the  most  commanding  position.  It  is 
built  with  most  skill  and  perfection  of  work- 
manship. And  its  summit  rises  higher  heaven- 
ward than  that  of  any  other. 

This  greatest  of  the  pyramids  is  also  the 
oldest  of  them.  Lepsius  says,  "  The  builders 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  seem  to  assert  their  right 
to  form  the  commencement  of  monumental 


A  MIRACLE  IX  STONE. 


39 


history."  "  To  the  Pyramid  of  Cheops  the 
first  link  of  our  whole  monumental  history  is 
fastened  immovably,  not  for  Egyptian,  but  for 
universal  history."  Prof.  Smyth  holds  that 
"  the  world  has  no  material  and  contemporary 
record  of  intellectual  man  earlier  than  the 
Great  Pyramid."  Beckett  Denison  agrees  that 
this  is  "  the  earliest  and  largest  of  all  the 
pyramids."  Hales  in  his  Analysis,  Sharpe  in 
his  History  of  Egypt,  Bunsen  in  his  Egypt's 
Place  in  History,  and  the  best  authors  in  gen- 
eral, make  the  same  representations.  There 
is  no  evidence  on  earth,  known  to  man,  that 
ever  a  true  pyramid  was  built  before  the  erec- 
tion of  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh. 

Here,  then,  is  a  fact  to  start  with  which 
utterly  confounds  the  ordinary  laws  in  human 
affairs.  The  arts  of  man  left  to  himself,  never 
attain  perfection  at  once.  At  all  times  and 
in  all  countries,  there  is  invariably  a  series  of 
crude  attempts  and  imperfect  beginnings  first, 
and  thence  a  gradual  advance  from  a  less  per- 
fect to  a  more  complete.  Styles  of  architec- 
ture do  not  spring  into  existence  like  Minerva 
from  the  brain  of  Jupiter,  fullgrown  and  per- 
fect from  the  start.  But  here  all  ordinary 
laws  are  reversed,  and  the  classic  dream  finds 
reality.    As  with  the  beginning  of  our  race, 


40 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


so  with  the  pyramids,  the  most  perfect  is  first 
and  what  comes  after  is  deteriorate.  The 
Great  Pyramid  comes  upon  the  scene  and 
maintains  its  grand  superiority  forever,  with- 
out any  preceding  type  of  its  class  whence 
the  idea  was  evolved.  Renan  says,  44  It  has  no 
archaic  epoch."  Osburn  says,  "  It  bursts  upon 
us  at  once  in  the  flower  of  its  highest  perfec- 
tion." It  suddenly  takes  its  place  in  the  world 
in  all  its  matchless  magnificence,  "  without 
father,  without  mother,"  and  as  clean  apart 
from  all  evolution  as  if  it  had  dropped  down 
from  the  unknown  heavens.  We  can  no  more 
account  for  its  appearance  in  this  fashion  on 
ordinary  principles  than  we  can  account  for 
the  being  of  Adam  without  a  special  Divine 
intervention. 

This  pyramid  once  in  existence,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  account  for  all  the  rest.  Having 
been  taught  how  to  build  it,  and  with  the  grand 
model  ever  before  them,  men  could  easily  build 
more.  But  how  to  get  the  original  with  its 
transcendent  superiority  to  all  others  is  the 
trouble.  The  theory  of  Mr.  Taylor  and  Prof 
Smyth  would  admirably  solve  the  riddle ;  but 
apart  from  that,  there  is  no  knowledge  of  man 
by  which  it  can  be  solved.  People  may  guess 
and  suppose ;  but  they  can  tell  us  nothing. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


41 


The  evidences   also  are,  that  the  whole 
family  of  Egyptian  pyramids,  and  there  are 
no  others,  is  made  up  of  mere  blind  and  bun- 
gling imitations  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  They 
take  its  general  form,  but  they  every  one  miss 
its  intellectuality  and  take  on  none  of  their 
own.    None  of  them  has  any  upper  openings 
or  chambers  ;  and  the  reason  is  furnished  in 
what  Al  Mamoun  on  making  his  forced  en- 
trance found  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  to  wit, 
the  fact  that  its  upward  passage-way  was  stop- 
ped by  its  builders,  filled  up,  hidden,  and  then 
for  the  first  time  discovered.    These  upper 
openings,  though  the  main  features  of  the 
Great  Pyramid's  interior,  were  wholly  un- 
known to  the  copyists,  and  hence  were  not 
copied.    The  downward  passage  and  the  sub- 
terranean chamber  were  known,  and  could  be 
inspected ;  hence  these  features  appear  in  all 
the  pyramids.    It  would  be  difficult  to  con- 
ceive more  conclusive  internal  evidences  of 
mere  imitation,  or  of  the  certainty  that  the 
Great  Pyramid  is  the  real  original  of  all  pyra- 
mids.   All  the  rest  are  but  vulgar  and  un- 
meaning piles  of  stones  in  comparison  with  it. 

Form  and  Proportions. 
A  building  having  a  square  base  and  its  four 


42 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


sides  equally  sloped  inwards  to  a  single  poini. 
at  the  top  is  a  p}7ramid.  There  may  be  other 
and  various  pyramidal  forms,  but  they  are  not 
true  pyramids.  In  stone  architecture  such  a 
figure  requires  the  edifice  to  be  solid,  or  mainly 
so,  and  can  furnish  very  little  internal  space 
for  any  practical  use.  It  is  therefore  a  style 
of  building  which  is  itself  something  peculiar 
and  quite  unfitted  to  any  of  the  ordinary  pur- 
poses for  which  man  erects  edifices. 

But  not  all  pyramids  have  the  same  relative 
proportions  or  degree  of  slope  in  their  sides. 
In  this  respect  the  Great  Pyramid  stands  alone 
among  all  other  pyramids  or  buildings  on  earth. 
Plato  says,  that  "  God  perpetually  geome- 
trizes,"  and  this  pyramid  presents  a  clear  and 
solid  geometric  figure  with  all  its  proportions 
conformed  to  each  other. 

Science  has  frequently  alluded  to  a  certain 
triplicity  or  triunity  of  nature,  assuming  some- 
thing of  the  character  of  a  law  of  creation, 
and  traceable  as  a  sort  of  pervading  analogy 
of  Providence.  Poets,  those  close  observers 
and  portray ers  of  nature,  have  likewise  refer- 
red to  it.  The  crust  of  the  earth  is  composed 
of  a  grand  triplicity  of  primary,  secondary, 
and  tertiary  stratifications.  Comte  beheld 
the  laws  of  mind  as  made  up  of  supernatural, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


43 


metaphysical,  and  positive  stages  in  mental 
evolution.  Burke  thought  he  saw  a  parallel 
between  mythology  and  geology,  and  classified 
the  former  according  to  the  three  stages  of  the 
earth's  formation.  A  modern  chemist  reduces 
all  the  properties  of  matter  to  attraction,  re- 
pulsion, and  vitality.  And  a  late  attempt  to 
give  "  a  basic  outline  of  universology,"  com- 
prises all  things  in  unism,  duism,  and  trin- 
ism.  Without  accepting  these  things  as  settled 
truths,  they  yet  serve  to  show  a  primary  some- 
thing, which,  to  the  most  observant  minds, 
bespeaks  an  original  triplicity,  putting  itself 
forth  as  a  rudimental  law.  And  if  the  Great 
Pyramid  was  really  intended  to  symbolize  the 
universe,  we  would  also  expect  to  find  in  it 
some  recognition  of  this  triplicity  or  triunity. 
Accordingly  we  do  find  this  to  be  the  funda- 
mental figure  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  which  is 
at  the  same  time  the  geometrical  skeleton  of 
the  earth,  if  not  also  of  the  whole  physical 
and  spiritual  universe. 

It  was  a  great  achievement  of  our  science  to 
ascertain  that  the  earth  is  a  revolving  globe. 
But  this  spherity  is  the  mere  clothing  of  a 
mathematical  figure  to  which  it  is  formed. 
As  a  revolving  body,  the  earth  has  an  axis  of 
rotation,  that  is,  it  makes  all  its  revolutions  in 


44 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


one  and  the  same  unvarying  direction,  indicai 
ing  a  primary  straight  line  through  its  centre 
to  its  poles.  Using  this  as  a  base  line,  which 
it  is  in  fact,  and  drawing  two  equal  lines  from 
the  surface  at  the  poles  to  the  highest  point  of 
surface  at  the  equator,  the  result  is  one  of  the 
simplest  compound  figures  in  geometry — a 
triangle — just  what  we  have  in  the  outline 
figure  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  in  each  of 
its  four  faces. 

Examining  this  figure  more  closely,  still 
other  remarkable  properties  appear.  Viewed 
as  a  triangle,  if  we  square  its  base  line,  as 
squared  in  fact  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  add 
together  the  lengths  of  the  four  sides,  we  have 
the  exact  equal  of  a  circle  drawn  wTith  the 
vertical  height  for  a  radius.  In  other  words, 
we  have  here  a  figure  of  the  framework  of  the 
earth,  and  that  figure  possessed  of  the  propor- 
tion which  is  known  to  mathematicians  as  the 
7T  proportion, —  thus  presenting  a  practical 
solution  of  that  puzzling  problem  which  has 
cracked  so  many  mediaeval  and  modern  brains, 
to  wit,  the  quadrature  of  the  circle.  Hence 
John  Taylor  says  of  the  builders  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  that  u  they  imagined  the  earth  to  be 
a  sphere,  and  as  they  knew  that  the  radius  of 
a  circle  must  bear  a  certain  proportion  to  its 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


45 


circumference,  they  built  a  four-sided  pyramid 
of  such  a  height  in  proportion  to  its  base,  that 
its  perpendicular  would  be  the  radius  of  a 
sphere  equal  to  the  perimeter  of  the  base." 

The  other  pyramids  have  the  same  general 
form  copied  after  this,  but  these  mathematical 
proportions  and  signs  of  high  intellectuality 
appear  nowhere  but  in  the  Great  Pyramid. 
And  when  Jomard  says,  "  The  pyramids  have 
preserved  to  us  the  certain  type  of  the  size  of 
the  terrestrial  globe,"  he  utters  a  great  truth, 
but  what  is  not  true  in  any  definite  measure 
save  of  the  Great  Pyramid. 

Pyramid  Numbers. 
The  peculiar  figure  and  shape  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  fixes  a  certain  system  of  numbers. 
It  has  five  corners  :  four  equal  corners  at  the 
base  and  one  unique  corner  at  the  summit. 
Hence  it  has  five  sides  ;  four  equal  triangular 
sides  and  the  square  under-side  on  which  it 
stands.  Here  is  an  emphatic  count  of  fives 
doubled  into  the  convenient  decimal.  This 
count  is  so  inherent  and  marked  as  to  be  a 
strong  characteristic,  calling  for  the  number 
five,  and  multiples,  powers  and  geometrical 
proportions  of  it,  as  loudly  as  stones  can  be 
made  to  speak. 


46 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


From  this  also  it  would  seem  to  have  its 
name.  Though  different  authors  have  sought 
to  derive  this  word  from  the  Greek,  Arabic,  and 
other  sources,  the  evidence  is  rather  that  it 
came  direct  from  the  builders  of  the  edifice, 
and  was  meant  to  describe  it  in  the  common 
language  then  used  in  the  country.  The 
nearest  to  that  language  is  the  Coptic.  And 
in  the  ancient  Coptic,  pyr  means  division,  the 
same  as  peres  in  Daniel's  interpretation  of  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall  ;  and  met  means  ten. 
Chevalier  Bunsen,  without  thought  of  com- 
bining them  for  the  derivation  of  the  word 
pyramid,  gives  these  words  separately  and 
affixes  to  them  these  significations.*  And  put- 
ting them  together — pyr-met — we  have  the 
name  given  to  this  structure.  And  that  name, 
in  the  language  of  the  ancientEgyptians,  means 
the  division  of  ten. 

Accordingly  a  system  of  fiveness  runs 
through  the  Great  Pyramid  and  its  measure 
references.  Counting  five  times  five  courses  of 
the  masonry  from  the  base  upwards  we  are 
brought  to  the  floor  of  the  so-called  Queen's 
Chamber.  The  measures  of  that  chamber  all 
answer  to  a  standard  of  five  times  five  inches. 

*  See  Egypt's  Place  in  History,  vol.  i,  p.  477,  and  vol.  iv,  p 
107. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


47 


It  is  characterized  by  a  deep  sunken  niche  in 
one  of  its  walls,  which  niche  is  three  times  five 
feet  high,  consisting  of  five  strongly  marked 
stories,  the  topmost  five  times  five  inches 
across,  and  its  inner  edge  just  five  times  five 
inches  from  the  perpendicular  centre  of  the 
wall  into  which  it  is  cut.  So  if  we  count  five 
times  five  courses  higher,  or  ten  times  five  from 
the  base,  the  last  brings  us  on  the  floor  of  the 
King's  Chamber,  whose  walls  are  composed  of 
twenty  times  five  stones,  arranged  in  five  hori- 
zontal courses.  The  base  line  of  the  lowest 
course  is  five  inches  below  the  level  of  the  floor, 
and  with  these  five  inches  off,  this  course  em- 
braces a  space  just  ten  five  times  the  cubic  con- 
tents of  the  Coffer.  Above  the  King's  Chamber 
are  five  chambers  of  construction,  and  the 
Coffer  itself  has  five  solid  external  sides. 

This  intense  fiveness  could  not  have  been 
accidental,  and  likewise  corresponds  with  the 
arrangements  of  God,  both  in  nature  and  rev- 
elation. Note  the  fiveness  of  termination  to 
each  limb  of  the  human  body,  the  five  senses, 
the  five  books  of  Moses,  the  twice  five  precepts 
of  the  Decalogue.  But  this  is  not  all.  Science 
now  tells  us  that  the  diameter  of  the  earth  at 
the  poles  is  five  hundred  millions  of  units, 
about  the  length  of  our  inches.    Five  times 


48 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


five  of  these  units  or  inches  is  the  twice  ten 
millionth  part  of  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation. 
Ten  times  ten  of  these  units  or  inches  counted 
for  a  day,  when  divided  into  the  united  lengths 
of  the  Great  Pyramid's  four  sides,  give  the 
exact  number  of  days  in  the  true  year.  As 
near  as  science  has  been  able  to  determine  the 
mean  density  of  the  earth  (5.70),  five  cubic 
inches  of  it  weighs  just  the  fifty  times  fiftieth 
part  of  the  Coffer's  contents  of  water  at  a  tem- 
perature of  one-fifth  of  the  distance  which  the 
mercury  rises  from  the  freezing  to  the  boiling- 
point. 

Nine  is  another  number  very  specially  marked 
in  the  Great  Pyramid,  particularly  in  its  sun- 
ward portions  and  tendencies.  Its  practical 
shaping  is  nine  to  ten.  For  every  ten  feet  that 
its  corners  retreat  diagonally  inwards  in  the 
process  of  building  they  rise  upward  or  sun- 
ward nine  feet.*    At  high  noon  the  sun  shines 

*  From  this  10,9  shape  of  the  Great  Pyramid  there  results 
also  important  confirmation  of  the  measurements  of  the  base 
side  and  height.  "  The  side  angle  computed  from  it  amounts  to 
51°  50'  39. \"  \  the  angle  being  51°  51'  14.3" ;  and  the  angle 
from  Mr.  Taylor's  interpretation  of  Herodotus,  or  to  the  effect 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  having  been  built  to  represent  an  area  on 
the  side  equal  to  the  height  squared  51°  49'  25".  The  vertical 
heights  in  pyramid  (earth-commensurated)  inches  are  at  the 
same  time,  using  the  same  base  side  length  for  them  all  by  the 
10,9  hypothesis,  5811  ;  by  the  »•  hypothesis  5813;  and  by  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


49 


on  all  five  of  its  corners  and  four  of  its  sides, 
counting  nine  of  its  most  characteristic  parts. 
The  Grand  Gallery  is  roofed  with  four  times 
nine  stones,  and  the  main  chamber  with 
exactly  nine.  And  here  again  we  have  a 
nature  reference  which  nations  have  expended 
millions  to  ascertain.  The  vertical  height  of 
the  Great  Pyramid  multiplied  by  10  to  the  9th 
power  (10q)  tells  the  mean  distance  of  the  sun 
from  the  earth,  that  is  one  thousand  million 
times  the  pyramid's  height,  or  91,840,000 
miles. 

The  sun-distance  used  to  be  put  down  by 
astronomy  at  nearly  96,000,000  miles.  Later 
computations,  at  the  opposition  of  Mars  in 
1862,  reduced  this  estimate  to  between  ninety- 
one  and  ninety-three  millions.    The  results  of 


Herodotus-Taylor  hypothesis  5807."  The  nearness  to  identity 
of  the  results  of  such  diverse  methods  amply  proves  that  the 
assumed  measure  of  each  base  side,  by  taking  the  mean  of  all 
the  practical  measurements  between  the  sockets,  cannot  be  far 
from  the  true  measure  laid  out  by  the  architects,  and  hence  a 
just  foundation  on  which  to  proceed  in  any  calculations  or  con- 
clusions that  may  result.  Those  who  are  disposed  to  rid  them- 
selves of  such  conclusions  on  the  ground  that  we  do  not  know 
with  sufficient  accuracy  what  is  the  length  of  the  pyramid's  base 
sides,  ought  to  consider  these  remarkable  facts,  and  meet  them 
in  a  fair  and  scientific  way,  or  else  admit  that  there  is  no  such 
vitiating  uncertainty  as  they  too  fondly  assume  without  being 
able  practically  or  by  any  process  to  prove  that  our  figures  are 
false. 

4 


50 


A  MIRACLF  IN  STONE. 


the  observations  of  the  transit  of  Venus  in 
1874  have  confirmed  these  lower  figures, 
making  the  limit  of  uncertainty  to  lie  between 
ninety-one  and  ninety-two  and  a  half  millions. 
Taking  the  mean  of  the  estimates  as  the  best 
that  modern  science  has  been  able  to  present, 
we  have  a  very  close  agreement  with  the  Great 
Pyramid's  symbolizations.  And  when  science 
has  once  definitely  settled  the  point,  there  is 
now  every  indication  that  the  figures  will  agree 
precisely  with  what  was  not  only  known  to 
the  architects  of  this  pyramid,  but  was  by 
them  imperishably  memorialized  in  stone  more 
than  4000  years  ago! 

All  this  proves  not  only  intelligent  design 
on  the  part  of  these  builders,  but  an  acquaint- 
ance with  nature,  and  a  genius  for  the  ex- 
pression of  nature's  truths  in  the  forms  and 
measures  of  a  plain,  simple,  and  enduring 
structure,  which  any  less  attainment  than  that 
of  our  greatest  living  astronomers  and  savants 
could  not  so  much  as  understand. 

Size  of  the  Great  Pyramid. 

The  opinion  was  given  by  Lepsius,  and  from 
him  has  been  largely  accepted  as  a  law  in 
Egyptian  pyramid  building,  that  each  k^ng, 
when  he  came  to  the  throne,  began  to  excavate 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


51 


a  subterranean  chamber  with  an  inclined  pas- 
sage, which  chamber  was  meant  for  his  tomb  ; 
the  first  year  he  covered  it  with  a  few  squared 
blocks  of  stone,  the  next  added  more,  and  so 
continued  till  he  died,  leaving  it  to  his  suc- 
cessor to  finish  and  close  the  edifice.  Hence 
the  size  of  each  pyramid  would  depend  upon 
the  accident  of  the  duration  of  the  king's  life. 
Perhaps  it  was  so  after  pyramids  came  to  be 
a  fashion,  though  some  long-lived  kings  have 
only  small  pyramids.  But  it  is  very  certain 
that  the  Great  Pyramid  did  not  grow  in  this 
way.  Its  whole  character  was  calculated  and 
determined  beforehand.  The  drafts  of  its 
architects  still  exist,  graven  in  the  rocks,  as 
Job  wished  that  his  words  might  be  in  order 
to  last  forever.  There  they  are  in  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  great  building,  the  pro- 
jection of  whose  shape  and  features,  without 
and  within,  they  still  show  to  every  one  who 
wishes  to  examine  them.  By  them  it  is  proven 
that  the  whole  structure  in  its  angles  and  math- 
ematical proportions  was  contemplated  and 
designed  from  the  start.*    Besides,  the  subter- 

*  "  These  azimuth  trenches  are  a  sort  of  large  open  ditches 
spread  about  here  and  there  on  the  surface  of  the  hill,  before 
the  eastern  face  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  not  very  noticeable 
except  for  their  relative  angles  in  a  horizontal  plane  ;  for  these 
gave  me  the  idea  at  first  sight  of  being  strangely  similar  to  the 


52 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


raviean  chamber  of  the  Great  Pyramid  which 
this  "law"  would  require  to  be  finished  first 

dominant  angles  of  the  exterior,  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  To 
determine  whether  this  idea  was  true  or  not,  I  determined  to 
measure  all  the  angles  rather  carefully."  "  Most  happily,  toe, 
every  part  of  them  which  has  to  enter  into  the  measurement, 
still  exist  visibly  and  tangibly ;  so  that  good  painstaking 
modern  observation  is  perfectly  able  of  itself,  either  to  prove 
or  disprove  what  has  just  been  advanced,"  i.e.,  their  corres- 
pondence to  the  angle  of  the  foot  of  the  Great  Pyramid. — "Life 
and  'Work  at  Great  Pyramid,"  vol.  ii,  p.  125,  vol.  iii,  p.  28. 

"  For  several  reasons  I  consider  these  trenches  have  been  orig- 
inally incised  for  instructing  the  masons  in  the  exact  angular 
character  of  the  very  mathematically  formed  building  they  were 
engaged  on,  and  while  the  work  was  in  progress." — "Antiquity 
of  Intellectual  Man,"  p.  192. 

"  If  you  take  the  Great  Pyramid  as  it  was  when  in  masonry 
progress  or  without  its  final  casing  film,  and  if  from  the  centre 
of  the  then  base  you  draw  its  proportion  n  circle,  the  conjoined 
axes  of  north  and  south  azimuth  trenches  will  form  a  tangent 
to  that  circle  at  its  most  protuberant  point  in  front  of  the 
middle  east  side.  And  further,  if  from  the  points  toward  the 
north  and  south  extremities  of  the  east  side  of  base  where  the 
5r  'circle  cuts  into  the  area  of  the  base  you  draw  rectangular 
offsets  from  that  side  eastward,  these  offsets  will  be  found  to 
define  the  places  of  the  admirably  square  cut  outer  ends  of 
both  north  and  south  azimuth  trenches  with  as  much  accuracy 
as  the  present  standing  and  broken  sides  of  the  pyramid  admit 
of  in  their  measurement." — Mr.  W.  Petrie,  quoted  by  Prof. 
Smyth. 

Besides  these  trenches  there  is  also  a  system  of  inclined  tun- 
nels cut  into  the  rock  of  the  hill,  which  some  have  taken  to  be 
the  remains  or  the  commencement  of  another  pyramid  of  small 
size.  But  Prof.  Smyth  found  them  arranged  on  the  same 
principles  contained  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  only  in  it. 
He  says  of  them:  "There  is  a  long  descending  entrance  pas- 
sage, an  upward  and  opposite  rising  passage  from  the  middle  of 
that  like  the  Great  Pyramid's  first  ascending  passage  ;  then  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


53 


is  just  that  part  which  never  was  finished  at 
all.  It  is  only  half  cut  out, — a  mere  pit  with- 
out a  bottom.  Herodotus  also  gathered  from 
the  Egyptians  themselves  that  ten  years  were 
spent  in  building  preparatory  works,  which  are 
hardly  less  remarkable  and  elaborate  than  the 
pyramid  itself,  and  that  everything  was  or- 
ganized on  an  immense  scale,  keeping  100,000 
men  continually  at  work,  relaying  them  every 
three  months.  Furthermore,  all  the  search- 
ings  into  this  pyramid  have  failed  to  reveal 
any  signs  of  the  patching  of  one  year's  work 
to  that  of  another,  or  any  arrangements  for 
such  a  contingency  as  the  possible  death  of 
the  king  before  the  work  was  complete.  On 
the  contrary,  everything  argues  one  continuous 

beginning  of  a  horizontal  passage  like  that  to  the  Queen's 
Chamber,  and  finally  the  commencement  of  the  upward  rising 
of  the  Grand  Gallery  with  its  remarkable  ramps  on  either  side. 
The  angles,  heights,  and  breadths  of  all  these  are  almost  exactly 
the  same  as  obtain  in  the  Great  Pyramid. "  They  are  evidently 
the  experimental  models,  cut  beforehand  into  an  unneeded  part 
of  the  hill,  giving  the  plan  to  which  the  Great  Pyramid  was 
to  be  wrought,  and  to  which  the  builders  have  accurately  con- 
formed the  mighty  structure.  Here,  then,  in  these  trenches  and 
tubes  we  still  find  the  plans  and  drawing  to  which  these  ancient 
masons  worked,  both  of  the  outside  angles  and  the  inside  ar- 
rangements. We  cannot  conceive  that  these  vast  and  still 
enduring  charts  giving  the  features  of  the  Great  Pyramid  in 
all  its  greatness  would  thus  have  been  cut  if  the  whole  work 
had  been  conditioned  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  duration  of  the 
king's  life.  Osburn  entirely  repudiates  Lepsius's  "law  of 
pyramid  building." 


54 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE 


and  fore -calculated  job,  evenly  carried  through 
from  beginning  to  end,  just  as  a  farmer  would 
build  his  barn  or  a  baker  his  oven.  Hence  if 
there  is  anything  in  Lepsius's  t;  law  of  pyramid 
building,"  the  Great  Pyramid  never  came 
under  it,  but  received  its  being  and  dimensions 
from  a  foregoing  plan  of  the  whole,  pursued 
from  commencement  to  completion  without 
interruption  or  any  thought  of  it. 

An  immense  amount  of  careful  endeavor 
has  been  expended  by  different  men  at  differ- 
ent periods  to  ascertain  the  precise  measure- 
ments of  the  Great  Pyramid's  base  sides.  And 
since  the  discovery  of  the  corner  sockets  it 
would  seem  as  if  there  should  be  no  difficulty 
in  arriving  at  exact  data  on  that  point.  But 
the  length  to  be  measured  is  so  great,  and  the 
mounds  of  rubbish  lying  between  the  points 
from  which  the  measure  is  to  be  taken  are  so 
immense  and  irregular,  that  absolute  certainty 
has  not  been  reached  and  cannot  be  till  some 
rich  man,  society,  or  government  performs  the 
work  of  removing  the  impediments  and  opens 
a  clear  way  from  corner  to  corner.  The 
measurements  thus  far  made  from  these  sockets 
by  scientific  men  give  us  a  mean  of  nine  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  forty  of  our  inches  as 
the  length  of  either  of  the  Great.  Pyramid's 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


55 


four  sides,  that  is,  a  fraction  over  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixty-one  and  a  half  feet,  or  nearly 
one-sixth  of  a  mile.* 

With  this  measure  for  the  base  of  the  sides, 
and  the  angle  of  51°  51'  14"  for  their  slope, 
the  lines  intersect  in  a  point  of  perpendicular 
altitude  five  thousand  eisrht  hundred  and  nine- 
teen  inches  from  the  level  of  the  pavement  dis- 
covered by  Colonel  Vyse.  But  there  are  other 
ways  of  ascertaining  the  height.  By  the 
barometer,  by  trigonometry,  and  by  the  actual 
measurement  of  the  heights  of  the  two  hun- 

*  The  following  is  a  list  of  these  measures  : 
The  French  savants  in  1799,  north  side  only,  9163  Eng.  inches. 

Colonel  Howard  Vyse  in  1836,  "      "       »     9168  "  « 

Mahmoud  Bey  in  1862,  "     "       "     9162  «  " 

Aiton  and  Inglisin  1865,  mean  of  four  sides,  9110  "  " 
English  Ordnance  Surveyors  in  1869,  mean 

of  four  sides,  9130  "  " 

Mean  of  the  five,  9144     "  " 

The  Aiton-Inglis  measuring  was  repeated  four  times,  and  the 
mean  given  is  that  of  the  four  measures,  which  would  justly 
entitle  this  figure  to  more  weight  than  simply  as  one  of  the  five. 
Very  moderately  weighting  it  beyond  the  rest  gives  us  the 
general  mean  of  nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty  inches, 
with  a  small  margin  of  possible  error  on  either  side.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  regretted  that  we  cannot  refer  to  absolutely  cer- 
tain figures,  and  so  shut  out  all  possible  cavil  ;  but  as  the 
matter  stands,  the  most  reasonable  and  scientific  way  of  esti- 
mating the  truth  is  that  of  taking  the  properly  weighted  mean 
cf  the  several  very  competent  measurers,  each  anxious  to  be 
exact,  and  one  as  liable  to  be  too  high  as  the  other  too  low. 


56 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


dred  and  two  remaining  courses  of  the  masonry, 
the  elevation  to  the  present  plateau  at  the 
top  can  be  taken.  And  by  eight  of  the  most 
distinguished  measurers  who  have  performed 
the  operation,  from  Jomard  and  Cecile  to 
Aiton  and  Inglis,  the  mean  comes  out  five 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty  inches.  Prof. 
Smyth  makes  it  five  thousand  four  hundred 
and  forty-five.  Each  side  of  the  present  sum- 
mit area  is  four  hundred  inches.  Adding  one 
hundred  inches,  the  thickness  of  the  casing 
stones,  to  each  side,  the  square  would  be  six 
hundred  inches  on  each  outer  line.  At  the 
angle  of  51°  51/  14"  this  would  give  a  vertical 
height  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-two  inches, 
yielding  5440  +  382  =  5822  of  our  inches  as 
the  full  original  height  of  the  Great  Pyramid. 
The  same  estimate  is  confirmed  on  other  and 
independent  methods  of  computation ;  thus 
also  confirming  the  estimate  of  the  length  of 
the  base  sides,  the  one  process  yielding  within 
three  inches  of  what  is  reached  by  the  other. 

Within  a  narrow  margin  of  uncertainty  in 
which  actual  measurement  always  differs  from 
absolute  mathematical  exactness,  we  may 
therefore  take  it  as  reasonably  settled  that  the 
Great  Pyramid's  sides  are  each  nine  thousand 
one  hundred  and  forty  of  our  inches  long,  and 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


57 


slope  upward  to  a  point  originally  five  thou- 
sand  eight  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  same 
inches  in  perpendicular  height  above  the  line 
of  the  pavement  below.  This  gives  us  the 
vastest  and  highest  stone  building  ever  erected 
by  human  hands.* 

Osburn  says,  "  its  long  shadow  darkens  the 
fields  of  Gizeh  as  the  day  declines/'  and  that 
"when  the  spectator  can  obtain  a  distinct 
conception  of  its  vastness  no  words  can  de- 
scribe the  overwhelming  sense  of  it  which 
rushes  upon  his  mind.  He  feels  oppressed  and 
staggers  beneath  a  load/'  to  think  that  such  a 
mountain  was  piled  by  the  handiwork  of  man. 

Standard  of  Linear  Measure. 
From  these  measurements  of  size  result  the 
*  proportion   which  is  now  admitted  to  be 
practically  exhibited  in  this  pyramid,  whether 

*  The  highest  cathedrals  in  the  world  are  Strasburg,  five 
thousand  six  hundred  and  sixteen  inches  ;  Rouen,  five  thousand 
five  hundred  and  sixty-eight ;  St.  Stephen's,  Vienna,  five  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  ninety-two;  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  five  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  eighty-four  ;  Amiens,  five  thousand  and 
eighty-eight ;  Salisbury,  four  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty- 
eight ;  Freiburg,  four  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty;  St. 
Paul's,  London,  four  thousand  three  hundred  and  thirty-two. 
The  Cathe'dral  at  Cologne  was  meant  to  be  higher,  but  never 
has  reached  this  height,  neither  has  any  other  known  tower. 
The  oldest  standing  edifice  in  the  world  is  thus  the  highest  by 
far. 


58 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


there  by  accident  or  by  intention.  The  width 
is  J  or  y  of  the  height,  and  each  face  is  al- 
most exactly  the  square  of  the  height. 

From  such  high  science  we  are  also  led  to 
expect  the  record  of  some  definite  standard  of 
measure,  which  every  one  would  naturally  wish 
to  learn  of  from  such  wonderful  architects  and 
geometricians.  Standards  of  measure  are  also 
just  now  a  subject  of  special  interest.  There 
has  come  a  singular  disturbance  and  doubt  on 
the  part  of  legislators  and  savants  as  to  what 
ought  to  be  the  ultimate  reference  or  basis  for 
all  measures  of  length.  The  nations  are  in- 
quiring, and  nobody  seems  to  know  on  what 
to  rest.  The  French  metres  are  unfortunately 
being  urged  by  many  as  the  most  scientific 
known. 

Nearly  one  hundred  years  ago  the  French 
people,  in  their  first  revolution,  made  an  attempt 
to  abolish  alike  the  Christian  religion  and  the 
hereditary  weights  and  measures  of  all  nations, 
seeking  to  supplant  the  former  by  a  worship 
of  philosophy  and  liberty,  and  the  latter  by 
a  new  scheme  of  metres.  For  their  unit  and 
standard  of  length  they  took  the  quadrant  of 
the  earth's  surface  at  the  particular  meridian 
of  Paris,  divided  it  into  ten  million  parts  and 
so  obtained  the  metre  of  39.371  inches  now 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


59 


so  highly  eulogized.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
origin  and  motive  of  such  a  standard,  the 
science  that  is  claimed  for  it  is  of  no  high 
character.  It  has  the  misfortune  of  taking  a 
curved  line  drawn  on  the  earth's  surface,  and 
that  at  a  particular  meridian  no  more  fitting 
than  any  other,  instead  of  some  straight  line 
invariable  for  all  the  earth.  Besides,  in  esti- 
mating for  the  earth's  elliptic  meridian  at  Paris 
these  atheistic  savants,  as  now  proven,  miscalcu- 
lated to  the  extent  of  one  part  in  every  five 
thousand  three  hundred  too  little,  and  so  on 
their  own  basis  their  lauded  unit  of  length  is 
not  scientifically  true.  Sir  John  Herschel 
rightfully  pronounces  it  "the  newest  and  worst 
measure  in  the  world,"  and  Beckett  Denison 
justly  regards  it  as  an  "inconvenient,  inaccu- 
rate, and  unstridable  measure."  What  men 
need  is  a  universal  standard  afforded  by  nature, 
and  serving  alike  for  all  mankind.  For  such 
a  standard  M.  Callet,  in  1795,  in  his  book  on 
TiOgarithms,  suggested  the  axis  of  the  earth, 
the  even  ten  millionth  to  be  taken  as  the 
standard  with  which  to  compare  all  distances 
and  lengths.  It  was  a  grand  thought,  far  in 
advance  of  all  modern  science  on  the  subject. 
The  axis  of  the  earth  has  every  philosophic 
and  aesthetic  reason  in  its  favor  as  the  great 


60 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


terrestrial  reference  for  all  our  linear  measure- 
ments. It  is  a  straight  line,  the  only  unvary- 
ing straight  line  which  terrestrial  nature 
affords,  and  the  same  for  all  localities  and  all 
time.  It  is  the  base  line  to  which  the  earth 
itself  is  framed.  And  as  remarked  by  Sir 
John  Herschel,  so  long  as  the  human  mind 
continues  human  and  retains  a  power  of  geom- 
etry, such  a  line  will  be  held  of  far  superior 
importance  to  any  part  or  degree  of  a  circum- 
ference. And  if  any  axis  is  to  be  chosen  on 
which  to  found  a  scientific  unit,  the  nature 
of  things  gives  an  absolute  and  indefeasible 
preference  to  the  polar  axis.  Now  this  is 
precisely  the  standard  of  reference  for  linear 
measure  which  the  Great  Pyramid  places  be- 
fore us. 

The  polar  diameter  of  the  earth,  according 
to  the  best  science,  is  500,500,000  of  our  inches, 
within  so  small  a  limit  of  possible  error  as  to 
make  but  little  difference  in  so  multitudinous 
a  subdivision.  The  British  ordnance  survey 
gives  the  results  of  two  methods  of  computa- 
tion, one  of  which  makes  it  500,428,290,  and 
the  other  500,522,904  of  our  inches,  the  for- 
mer being  considered  as  having  the  prepon- 
derance in  weight.     The  mean  of  the  two 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


61 


would  therefore  be  close  about  five  hundred 
millions  five  hundred  thousand  of  our  inches  ; 
and  this  is  what  Beckett  Denison  in  his  As- 
tronomy gives  as  the  result  of  the  most  reliable 
modern  calculations. 

Taking  the  even  five  hundred  millionth 
part  of  this,  we  would  have  1.001  of  our 
inches.  Suppose,  then,  that  we  free  this  even 
division  of  the  earth's  polar  diameter  from 
all  fractious,  and  call  the  five  hundred  mil- 
lionth part  of  that  axis  one  inch.  We  would 
thus  have  a  low  and  convenient  unit  of  length, 
about  half  a  fine  hair's  breadth  longer  than 
our  present  inch.  So  complete  and  even  a 
deduction  from  the  polar  axis  of  the  whole 
earth  would  certainly  be  the  grandest,  the 
most  rational,  and  the  most  natural  standard 
of  length  to  be  found  in  or  on  our  globe. 
Twenty-five  of  these  inches,  that  is,  25.025  of 
our  inches,  would  then  serve  for  a  cubit  or 
longer  standard,  evenly  deduced,  which,  multi- 
plied by  107,  would  tell  the  exact  distance  from 
the  centre  of  the  earth  to  either  pole.  It 
would  be  the  ten  millionth  part  of  the  semi- 
axis  of  the  globe  we  inhabit.  And  what  is 
more,  it  would  be  the  exact  sacred,  cubit  which 
God  himself  gave  to  His  people  of  old,  and 


62 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


by  which  He  directed  all  the  sacred  construe* 
tions  and  their  appurtenances  to  be  formed. * 

And  these  sublime  earth  commensuratiiiGr 
standards  of  length  are  precisely  the  ones  set 
forth  in  the  Great  Pyramid.  Whether  the 
practical  working  measure  was  in  general  the 
Egyp to-Babylonian  cubit  of  about  twenty  to 
twenty-one  of  our  inches  or  any  other  makes 
no  difference.  The  evidences  are  clear  that  a 
cubit  of  25.025  of  our  inches,  or  one  within  a 
very  slight  fraction  of  that  length,  and  an  inch 
which  is  the  five  hundred  millionth  part  of 
the  earth's  polar  diameter,  were  in  the  minds 
of  the  architects,  and  meant  by  them  to  be 
most  significantly  emphasized. 

*  Some  have  doubted  whether  the  Jews,  either  before  or  after 
the  Exodus,  ever  had  a  special  cubit  of  this  kind.  But  that 
they  had,  and  that  the  same  was  a  Divinely  given  and  author- 
ized length  measure,  is  so  clearly  deducible  from  the  Scriptures 
and  the  Jewish  writings  in  general  that  there  ought  to  be  no 
question  about  it.  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  in  his  "  Dissertation  on 
Cubits,"  has  brought  this  out  so  conclusively  as  to  leave  but  little 
else  to  be  desired.  By  five  successive  methods  he  also  deduces 
the  limit  of  its  length  as  in  no  case  less  than  23.3  or  more  than 
27.9  of  our  inches.  The  mean  of  all  his  numbers  amounts  to 
'J5.07  of  our  inches,  with  a  possible  error  on  the  one  side  or  the 
other  of  one-tenth  of  an  inch.  That  the  Hebrews,  then,  had  a 
peculiar  and  sacred  cubit  wholly  separate  from  all  other  cubits, 
and  that  it  was  the  even  ten  millionth  part  of  the  semi-axis  of 
the  earth,  we  may  accept  and  hold  on  the  authority  of  one  of 
the  greatest  minds  and  one  of  the  most  thorough  and  com- 
petent investigators  of  such  a  matter  that  has  illuminated  our 
modern  times. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


63 


It  is  a  noble  and  fitting  thought  that  as  the 
existence  of  an  axis  of  rotation  in  the  earth 
makes  the  days,  the  grand  standard  of  length 
founded  on  that  axis  should  count  them.  And 
so  it  is  in  the  Great  Pyramid.  This  nature- 
derived  cubit  is  contained  in  each  side  of  this 
edifice  just  as  many  times  as  there  are  days  in 
a  year  !  This  simple  fact  is  of  itself  an  in- 
vincible demonstration  that  these  builders  had 
such  a  length  in  mind  as  their  greatest  and 
most  sacred  standard  and  enumerator  of  linear 
measure.  But  it  is  also  specially  singled  out 
and  recorded  elsewhere  in  the  edifice.  It  is 
the  top  width  of  the  grand  niche  in  the  Queen's 
Chamber,  and  the  distance  between  the  highest 
inner  edge  of  that  niche  and  the  vertical  centre 
of  the  chamber.  It  is  thus  set  before  the  eye 
as  if  to  teach  all  to  note  its  existence  and  to 
search  for  its  hidden  use  and  meaning  in  the 
symbolizations. 

As  to  the  inch  or  the  one-twenty-fifth  of  this 
measure,  being  an  integer  of  the  grand  day 
counter,  it,  too,  is  indicated  in  the  right  place 
and  in  the  right  way.  It  is  contained  sepa- 
rately and  independently  in  the  entire  perimeter 
of  the  Grand  Pyramid's  base,  just  one  hundred 
times  for  each  day  of  the  year.  As  the  low 
unit  of  count  in  measure,  it  is  also  the  repre- 


64 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


sentative  of  a  year  in  the  reckoning  of  the 
passage  floor-lines  as  charts  of  history,  as  also 
in  the  diagonals  of  the  pyramid's  base  taken 
as  a  measure  of  the  precessional  cycle.  It  is 
likewise  specially  exhibited  in  connection  with 
the  cubit  in  the  singular  boss  of  the  suspended 
"granite  leaf"  in  the  anteroom  to  the  King's 
Chamber.*  Besides,  when  multiplied  by  107+4 
it  serves  to  tell  in  round  decimals  the  dis- 
tance through  space  which  the  earth  travels 
in  each  complete  revolution  on  its  axis,  that  is 
100,000,000,000  inches. 

A  standard  of  length  measure  is  thus  exhib- 
ited which  fits  with  grand  evenness  to  nature 
in  her  great  facts,  but  no  less  beautifully  with 
what  is  common  and  homely.  We  used  to  be 
taught  that  the  inch  is  made  up  of  so  many 

*  Captain  Tracy  has  pointed  out  that  the  pyramid's  earth- 
<;ommensurated  cubit  is  exhibited  on  this  boss  of  the  granite  leaf 
divided  into  fives,  for  it  is  just  one-fifth  of  that  cubit  broad, 
and  the  thickness  of  the  boss  is  again  just  one-fifth  <>f  its  width. 
We  thus  have  the  earth-commensurated  inch  and  cubit  exhibited 
together,  five  times  five  of  the  one  constituting  the  other.  This 
boss  again  is  just  one  of  these  inches  aside  from  the  centre  of 
the  block  on  which  it  is,  and  the  distance  from  its  centre  to  the 
eastern  end  of  that  block  in  its  groove  is  just  one  cubit  of  twenty- 
five  of  these  inches.  Kev.  Glover  re-examined  the  measures  of 
this  boss  in  1874  and  says :  "  I  find  it  most  fairly  confirmatory  of 
the  entire  of  the  sacred  cubit  and  its  divisions,  giving  the  inch 
elevation  and  the  five-inch  span  with  an  inch  base  for  the  side 
slope ;  on  the  boss  itself  there  is  no  indication  whatever  of  any 
irregularity  of  shape." — Casey's  "  Philitis,"  p.  40. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


65 


barleycorns.  That  reference,  I  believe,  has 
been  expunged  from  our  arithmetic  tables, 
because  our  mathematicians  have  lost  the 
knowledge  and  meaning  of  our  hereditary 
unit  of  length.  But  such  is  the  fact,  which 
any  one  can  test  for  himself,  that  if  we  start 
with  the  average  length  of  the  grains  from 
which  man  gets  his  bread,  or  with  the  average 
breadth  of  a  man's  thumb,  length  of  arm,  or 
reach  of  step  in  easy  walking,  everything 
comes  out  closely  even  with  these  earth  com- 
mensurated  and  Divinely  approved  standards 
of  length,  and  with  these  alone. 

Weight  and  Capacity  Measure. 

And  as  these  great  old  architects  measured 
the  earth,  so  they  also  weighed  it.  As  nearly 
as  can  be  computed,  their  pyramid  is  the  even 
one  thousand  billionth  part  of  the  weight  of 
this  whole  earth-ball  of  land  and  sea.  The 
gravity  of  the  entire  mass  of  what  they  built 
needs  only  to  be  multiplied  by  105X3  to  indicate 
the  sum  of  the  gravity  of  the  entire  mass  of 
the  globe  we  inhabit. 

There  has  been  much  effort  expended  by 
modern  science  to  find  out  the  mean  density 
or  specific  gravity  of  the  earth,  without  exactly 
settling  the  problem.    The  best  experiments 

5 


66 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


make  it  between  5.316  and  6.565  times  the 
weight  of  water  at  the  medium  temperature  of 
68°  Fahrenheit.  The  Great  Pyramid  makes 
it  5.70,  which  is  almost  exactly  the  mean  of 
the  best  five  experiments  ever  made.* 

A  further  memorial  of  the  same  is  furnished 
in  the  Coffer  of  the  King's  Chamber,  in  whose 
structure  the  same  n  proportions  of  the  pyra- 
mid itself  reappear  in  another  form.  The 

*  These  experiments  as  given  in  "  Johnson's  New  Universal 
Cyclopaedia"  (Art.  Density  of  the  Earth),  are  the  following  : 


Colonel  James's  Observations  with  Arthur's  Seat,  .  5.316 

Prof.  Airy's  Mine  Experiments,     ....  6.565 

Cavendish  Leaden  Globe  Experiment,    .       .       .  5.480 

Reich's  Experiments,   5.438 

Baily's  Experiments,   5.660 

Mean  of  all  the  results,   5.672 

Difference  from  pyramid,  028 

Pyramid  expression,   5.700 


It  thus  appears  that  the  pyramid's  figure  for  the  earth's 
density  is  much  nearer  to  the  mean  of  the  experiments  than  the 
experiments  are  to  each  other. 

Computing  the  earth's  bulk  at  a  mean  gravity  5.7  times  that 
of  water,  according  to  the  calculation  made  by  Mr.  Wm. 
Petrie,  of  London,  the  figures  stand  thus  : 
Pyramid's  mass  in  tons,  5,272,600. 
Earth's  mass  in  tons,      5,271 ,900,000,000,000,000,000. 

The  accurate  calculation  of  such  immense  masses  of  matter 
must  necessarily  be  very  rough  ;  but  the  results  come  out  evenly 
enough  to  show  that  5.70  is  the  proper  figure  for  the  pyramidic 
estimate  of  the  mean  density  of  the  earth,  and  that  the  pyra- 
mid was  meant  to  be  of  such  weight  that  it  should  be  to  the 
whole  weight  of  the  earth  as  1  to  106x3. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


67 


internal  capacity  of  that  Coffer  by  the  nicest 
possible  computations  is  seventy-one  thousand 
two  hundred  and  fifty  cubic  pyramid  or 
earth-commensurated  inches.  The  only  in- 
telligible reason  for  that  particular  capacity 
is  to  be  found  in  the  combination  of  a  capacity 
and  weight  measure  standard,  having  reference 
to  the  size  and  gravity  of  the  earth,  with 
that  gravity  computed  at  5.7.  Even  the  long- 
unobserved  little  irregularities  of  that  Coffer 
come  in  as  a  necessary  modifying  element  to 
meet  precisely  the  earth  reference  formula. 
On  the  pyramid  system  of  fives,  503  earth-com- 
mensurated inches  multiplied  by  the  earth's 
specific  gravity  and  divided  by  10,  represent 
with  close  exactness  the  Coffer's  interior  space. 

To  the  reality  of  these  earth  references  at 
the  valuations  given,  this  Coffer  comes  in  as  a 
seal,  and  at  the  same  time  furnishes  a  grand 
standard  of  united  weight  and  capacity  meas- 
ure. At  the  rate  of  5.7  for  the  mean  density 
of  the  earth,  the  Coffer's  contents  of  water  at 
68°  Fahrenheit  would  be  equal  to  twelve 
thousand  five  hundred  cubic  inches  of  the 
body  of  the  earth.  Dividing  this  into  two 
thousand  five  hundred  equal  parts  for  a  small 
fraction  in  the  dominant  pyramid  number  we 
have  an  even  result  equal  to  five  cubic  inches 


68 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  the  earth's  mean  density,  which  would  be 
the  pyramid  or  earth-commensurated  pound, 
which  is,  within  a  small  fraction,  the  same  as 
our  common  avoirdupois  pound,  equal  in  weight 
to  a  pint,  5  x  5.7  cubic  inches  of  water  at  a 
temperature  of  68°  Fahrenheit. 

The  Coffer  and  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 

The  only  article  of  furniture  in  all  the  Great 
Pyramid  is  this  Coffer  in  the  King's  Chamber. 
Al  Mamoun  found  it  a  lid  less,  empty  box,  cut 
from  a  solid  block  of  red  granite,  and  polished 
within  and  without.  In  shape  it  is  an  ob- 
long rectangular  trough,  without  inscription 
or  ornament,  and  of  such  size  that  it  could  not 
possibly  have  been  taken  in  or  out  of  its  place 
since  the  pyramid  was  built.  Its  proportions 
are  all  geometrical.  Its  sides  and  bottom  are 
cubically  identical  with  its  internal  space. 
The  length  of  its  two  sides  to  its  height  is  as 
a  circle  to  its  diameter.  Its  exterior  volume 
is  just  twice  the  dimensions  of  its  bottom,  and 
its  whole  measure  is  just  the  fiftieth  part  of 
the  size  of  the  chamber  in  which  it  stands.  Its 
internal  space  is  just  four  times  the  measure 
of  an  English  "  quarter "  of  wheat.  By  its 
contents  measure  it  also  confirms  Sir  Isaac 
Newton's  determination  of  the  length  of  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


69 


sacred  cubit  of  twenty-five  earth-commensu- 
rated  inches.  The  holy  Ark  of  the  Tabernacle 
and  the  Temple,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
was  two  and  a  half  cubits  long,  and  one  and 
a  half  broad  and  high.  This  must  be  outside 
measure,  as  the  records  speak  of  height  and  not 
of  depth.  With  twenty-five  earth-commensu- 
rated  inches  to  a  cubit,  and  allowing  1.8  of 
these  inches  for  the  thickness  of  the  boards, 
its  internal  space  would  be  seventy-one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  eighty-two  of  the  same 
cubic  inches,  or  within  thirty-two  of  the  num- 
ber of  such  cubic  inches  in  the  capacity  meas- 
ure of  the  pyramid  Coffer.  Or  allowing  1.75 
inches  for  the  thickness  of  the  sides  and  ends 
and  two  inches  for  the  bottom,  the  inner  cubical 
contents  would  be  seventy-one  thousand  two 
hundred  and  thirteen  inches,  or  within  thirty- 
seven  of  the  Coffer.  The  mean  of  these  two 
estimates,  which  must  include  all  reasonable 
suppositions  for  the  carpentry  of  the  ark, 
would  be  seventy-one  thousand  two  hundred 
and  forty-eight  cubic  inches,  which  is  within 
two  inches  of  the  best  computation  of  the  in- 
ternal dimensions  of  the  pyramid  Coffer.  That 
they  should  be  thus  alike  in  internal  measure, 
the  dimensions  of  the  one  having  been  speci- 
ally laid  down  by  God  himself,  is  very  remark- 


70 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


able,  and  that  the  two  should  thus  mutually 
sustain  each  other  in  the  recognition  of  one  and 
the  same  earth-commensurated  cubit,  is  both 
striking  and  significant.  Nay,  using  this  same 
earth-commensurated  cubit  as  identical  with 
the  sacred  cubit,  the  further  result  appears 
that  the  Jewish  laver  and  the  Ark  of  the 
Tabernacle  were  the  same  in  capacity  measure 
with  the  pyramid's  Coifer,  and  that  Solomon's 
molten  sea  was  just  fifty  times  the  capacity 
of  either  of  these  and  exactly  equal  in  interior 
cubic  space  with  the  King's  Chamber  itself. 

Temperature. 

As  the  Great  Pyramid  stands  on  the  line 
which  equally  divides  the  surface  of  the  north- 
ern hemisphere,  there  is  at  once  a  close 
approach  of  its  climate  to  the  mean  tempera- 
ture of  all  the  earth's  surface,  at  least  of  every 
habitable  land  and  navigable  sea.  According 
to  the  French  savants,  by  observations  both  in 
and  outside  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  that  tem- 
perature is  about  68°  Fahrenheit.  A  permanent 
and  unvarying  record  of  this  temperature  is 
maintained  in  the  pyramid's  granite  chamber, 
which  is  so  buried  in  masonry  as  not  to  be 
affected  by  external  changes,  and  furnished  with 
a  system  of  ventilating  tubes  to  keep  every- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


71 


thing  exactly  normal  within.  This  degree  of 
temperature  is  exactly  one-fifth  of  the  distance 
which  mercury  rises  in  the  tube  between  the 
freezing  and  boiling-points  of  water,  and  fur- 
nishes the  basis  for  a  complete  nature-adjusted 
pyramid  system  of  thermal  measure.  Dividing 
this  one-fifth  by  the  standard  of  fifty  (the 
room  in  which  the  index  of  temperature  is 
arranged  being  the  chamber  of  fifty),  we  have 
the  even  two  hundred  and  fifty  for  the  degrees 
between  the  two  notable  points  of  nature 
marked  by  the  freezing  and  boiling  of  common 
water.  Multiplying  this  by  four,  say  the 
pyramid's  four  sides,  we  are  brought  to  another 
great  natural  heat-mark,  namely,  that  at 
which  heat  begins  to  give  forth  light,  and  iron, 
the  commonest  of  metals,  becomes  red.  Then 
multiplying  again  by  five,  say  by  the  number 
of  the  pyramid's  five  corners,  the  result  comes 
out  evenly  at  another  grand  nature-marked 
point  of  thermal  measure,  namely,  that  at 
which  heat  shows  whiteness,  and  platinum,  the 
densest  and  most  refractory  of  metals,  melts. 

A  Metrological  Monument. 

Thus  the  Great  Pyramid  proves  itself  abun- 
dantly competent  to  determine  on  a  natural 
and  most  scientific  basis  all  measures  of  length, 


72 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


weight,  capacity,  and  heat.  Even  the  degrees 
in  the  circle  if  arranged  on  the  pyramid  num- 
bers, say  one  thousand  degrees  instead  of  the 
fractional  Babylonian  three  hundred  and  sixty, 
some  think,  would  be  vastly  more  natural  and 
easy  than  it  is.  This  would  divide  the  quad- 
rant into  the  convenient  two  hundred  and  fifty 
with  even  tenths  for  minutes  and  seconds, 
whilst  it  would  at  the  same  time  harmoniously 
commensurate  with  navigation  and  itinerary 
measures  of  knots  and  miles,  into  which  it  is 
now  so  troublesome  to  translate  from  the  indi- 
cations of  the  sextant. 

There  would  seem,  therefore,  to  be  nothing 
wanting  in  this  mighty  monument  of  hoar 
antiquity  for  the  formation  of  a  metrical 
system  the  most  universal  in  its  scope,  the 
most  scientifically  founded  in  its  standards,  the 
most  happily  interrelated,  and  the  most  easy 
in  its  common  use  that  ever  was  presented  to 
the  contemplation  of  man  or  that  can  be  em- 
ployed for  our  earth  purposes.  And  it  is 
devoutly  to  be  wished,  if  the  present  agitation 
of  the  human  mind  with  regard  to  standards 
and  systems  of  measure  is  to  result  in  any 
changes  for  the  nations,  that  they  should  be  in 
the  line  of  what  Providence  has  thus  set  before 
mankind.    Great  Britain,  the  United  States, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


73 


the  German  Empire,  the  Scandinavian  King- 
doms, and  other  principalities  and  countries, 
have  this  system  already  almost  exact  in  some 
departments,  descended  to  them  they  know 
not  from  whence,  and  the  correction  of  what 
is  faulty  would  be  attended  with  infinitely  less 
discomfort  than  the  introduction  of  French 
metres,  conceived  in  rebellion  against  the 
common  faith  and  order  of  the  Christian  world. 
We  would  then  have  the  high  consciousness  of 
possessing  a  system  of  metrology  the  most 
ancient  and  the  most  self-consistent  in  the 
world,  and  one  in  most  profound  accord  with 
nature  as  God  made  it,  if  not  communicated 
by  the  great  God  of  nature  by  direct  inspira- 
tion from  His  eternal  wisdom.* 

*  We  subjoin  a  table  of  units  and  standards  of  tbis  system 
the  better  to  set  it  before  the  eyes  and  understandings  of  those 
disposed  to  investigate  its  elements. 

I.  Linear  Measure.  The  grand  standard  for  this  is  the 
earth's  axis  of  rotation,  the  sacred  cubit  of  Noah,  Moses,  Solo- 
mon, and  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  shortest  distance  from  the 
centre  of  the  earth  to  either  pole  divided  by  107,  which  is  equal 
to  25.025  of  our  inches.    The  table  would  then  run  as  follows : 

3  barleycorns  =  1  inch  or  thumb-breadth. 
25  inches  =  1  cubit,  arm-length,  or  pace. 

100  cubits  =  1  acre  side. 

25  acre  sides      =  1  mile. 

4  miles  =  1  league. 

II.  Weight  and  Capacity  Measure.  The  grand  stand- 
ard for  this  is  the  mean  density  of  the  earth  at  5.70  times  the 


74 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


The  Pyramid's  Astronomy. 

Nor  are  we  any  less  impressed  with  the 
singular  wonderfulness  of  this  ancient  pillar, 
when  we  come  to  look  more  directly  at  its 
astronomy. 

Figuring  the  framework  of  the  earth  as  a 
triangle  formed  from  a  line  of  diameter,  and 
referring  to  an  axis  for  a  basis  for  this  triangle 
as  well  as  a  grand  standard  of  measure,  and 
that  triangle  being  greater  in  vertical  height  by 


weight  of  water  at  68°  Fahrenheit  (50°  pyramid),  barometrical 
pressure  30  inches  of  preceding  table.  Hence  5  X  5.7  (=28.5) 
cubic  inches  of  this  water,  being  the  2500th  part  of  the  cubic 
contents  of  the  Coffer,  give  us  a  pyramid  pint  =  a  pyramid 
pound;  the  pint  being  0.987  of  the  old  British  wine  pint,  and 
0.836  of  the  old  French  "chopine;"  and  the  pound  1.028  of  tho 
present  pound  avoirdupois,  and  1.050  of  the  old  French  "  poids 
de  marc."  This  pound  or  pint  evenly  divides  by  tens  to  grains 
and  drops,  and  multiplies  evenly  by  10,  2.5,  and  4  to  tons  and 
chaldrons.  The  correlation  would  then  be  1  drop  =  1  grain, 
1  pint  =  1  pound,  1  cwt.  =  1  bushel,  etc. 

III.  Thermal  Measure.  The  grand  standard  for  this  is 
the  mean  temperature  of  the  earth  in  which  man  works  with 
most  ease  and  comfort,  68°  Fahrenheit,  20°  Centigrade. 

0,  zero,  the  freezing-point  of  water. 
50,  moan  temperature  of  the  whole  earth. 
250,  boiling-point  of  water. 
1000,  the  point  at  which  heat  reddens  iron. 
5000,  white  heat,  at  which  platinum  melts. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


75 


duplication  than  would  equal  the  width  of  its 
base,  the  earth  is  necessarily  contemplated  as 
a  spheroid — a  globe  thicker  at  the  equator 
than  at  the  poles — just  as  all  correct  astronomy 
now  represents  it.  Modern  science  ascribes 
the  discovery  of  this  spherity  of  the  earth  to 
Thales,  six  hundred  years  before  Christ ;  but 
here  it  is  more  perfectly  represented  than 
Thales  ever  knew,  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years  before  Thales  was  born. 

A  fixed  axis  would  also  seem  to  imply  the 
idea  of  rotatory  motion.  And  the  making  of 
the  sides  of  the  pyramid  to  record  an  even 
fraction  of  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation  just  as 
many  times  as  there  are  days  in  the  year, 
proves  that  these  builders  had  an  idea  of  both 
motions  of  the  earth,  and  a  knowledge  of  the 
number  of  times  it  revolves  on  its  own  axis 
in  making  its  annual  revolution  around  the 
sun.  This  latter  motion  they  also  further 
symbolized  by  the  inches  or  fractions  of  twenty- 
five  in  their  great  standard  of  length,  just  one 
hundred  of  which  to  a  day,  for  the  number  of 
days  in  the  year,  are  contained  in  the  perimeter 
of  the  pyramid's  base.  If  any  one  within 
historic  times  prior  to  Copernicus  and  Galileo 
really  understood  this  feature  of  our  globe,  it 
certainly  was  not  well  known  nor  much  be- 


76 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


lieved  till  after  these  men  had  lived  ;  and  yet, 
here  it  is  distinctly  and  truly  symbolized  more 
than  thirty-five  hundred  years  before  their 
time. 

These  ancient  architects  also  knew  where  to 
find  the  poles  of  the  earth,  since  they  were 
able  to  determine  latitude  and  what  degree  of 
latitude  marks  the  half-way  of  the  world's 
surface  between  the  equator  and  the  poles. 
This  they  prove  to  us  by  having  built  their 
pyramid  on  that  line  of  latitude,  namely,  on 
the  thirtieth  north.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  slight 
fraction  south  of  that  line  as  now  estimated, 
but  obviously  intended  to  indicate  that  degree, 
since  they  built  as  closely  to  the  northern 
brink  of  the  hill  as  it  was  possible  to  go  and 
yet  secure  a  permanent  foundation  for  their 
work.  Nor  is  it  much  further  from  that  line 
than  the  ranges  of  probable  error  in  the  best 
scientific  calculations.  By  three  distinct  pro- 
cesses (by  differences  of  zenith  distance,  by 
absolute  zenith  distances,  and  by  transits  in 
prime  verticle)  lately  made  to  determine  pre- 
cisely the  latitude  of  Mt.  Agamenticus  Station 
in  Maine,  each  differed  from  the  others,  and 
the  determination  could  not  be  made  any 
nearer  than  somewhere  within  the  fourth  of 
a  hundred  parts  of  a  second.    This  was  close 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


77 


enough,  for  all  practical  purposes,  but  shows 
that  the  best  science  cannot  be  precisely  exact 
on  the  subject.  And  yet,  here  we  have  a 
determination  made  more  than  four  thousand 
years  ago,  in  fact  almost  within  the  limit  of 
error  of  the  best  scientific  possibilities,  and 
with  the  plain  intimation  of  a  better  knowledge 
which  had  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  requirements 
for  a  fitting  basis  to  a  building  intended  to  last 
to  the  end  of  time. 

These  men  have  thus  left  us  the  memorial 
of  a  remarkable  geodesy,  which  is  further  ex- 
hibited in  the  fact  that  they  not  only  put  their 
pillar  in  the  very  centre  of  Egypt,  but  on  the 
pivotal  balance-point  of  the  entire  land  dis- 
tribution over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth.  A 
glance  at  any  universal  map  makes  this  appar- 
ent, whilst  we  look  in  vain  for  another  point 
on  all  the  globe  which  so  naturally  and  evenly 
marks  the  centre  of  equation  for  all  inhabited 
land  surface.  There  is  here  a  measurement 
or  consciousness  of  the  extent  and  proportional 
relations  and  distribution  of  the  earth's  con- 
tinents and  islands,  such  as  modern  science  has 
not  yet  furnished  or  even  attempted  to  give. 

There  is  perhaps  no  much  better  test  of  a 
sound,  practical  astronomy,  than  to  be  able  to 
determine  truly  the  four  cardinal  points.  A 


78 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


very  simple  and  easy  thing  most  persons  would 
think  it,  but  not  so  easy  when  brought  to  the 
test.  The  compass  alone  never  can  be  depended 
on,  except  in  a  general  way.  The  attempts  of 
men  to  orient  truly,  even  with  the  aid  of  sci- 
ence, have  shown  constant  inaccuracy.  It  used 
to  be  thought  a  great  matter  to  have  churches 
and  cathedrals  built  exactly  east  and  west;  but 
of  all  so  intended  scarcely  one  has  been  found 
that  does  not  incline  either  to  the  north  or  the 
south  of  the  line  meant  to  be  followed.  It  is  the 
same  even  with  buildings  erected  specially 
for  astronomical  purpose.  Tycho  Brahe's  cele- 
brated Uranibourg  observatory  is  faulty  in 
orientation  to  five  minutes  of  a  degree.  The 
Greeks  in  the  height  of  their  glory  could  not 
find  the  cardinal  points  astronomically  within 
eight  degrees.  But  the  builders  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  out  in  the  Lybian  desert,  with  no 
guide  or  landmark  but  the  naked  stars,  were 
able  to  orient  their  structure  so  exactly  that 
the  science  of  the  wisest  Athenian  sages,  eigh- 
teen hundred  years  afterwards,  was  seventy 
limes,  and  the  observatory  of  Uranibourg 
nearly  four  times,  further  out  of  the  way  than 
it  is. 

One  of  the  most  curious  and  important 
problems  of  astronomy  is  the  sun  distance,  at 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


79 


which  men  have  labored  so  long  and  so  ear- 
nestly without  being  able  to  solve  it  closer 
than  within  a  limit  of  error  embracing  a 
million  and  a  half  of  miles.  That  distance, 
however,  is  emphatically  and  definitely  pro- 
nounced in  the  Great  Pyramid,  by  its  10  and  9 
of  practical  erection,  as  the  even  109  times  its 
own  height,  which  is  about  the  mean  between 
the  highest  and  lowest  figures  which  the  most 
recent  observations  have  set  down  as  the  best 
results  science  has  reached  on  this  point. 

The  Pyramid's  Chronology. 

Time  reckonings  belong  to  the  same  subject. 
Things  can  have  no  place  or  being  without 
time.  And  as  measures  of  time  are  mere  no- 
tations of  motions  in  the  clockwork  of  the  uni- 
verse, chronology  and  astronomy  necessarily 
go  together.  And  as  the  Great  Pyramid  me- 
morializes the  one,  the  other  must  also  be 
embraced.  Memorializing  the  revolutions  of 
the  earth  on  its  own  axis  and  around  the  sun, 
it  thus  at  the  same  time  fixes  its  notation  of 
days  and  the  year. 

But  there  is  another  observable  movement 
going  on  in  the  universe  of  a  much  grander 
and  wider  range,  and  of  special  importance 
with  regard  to  chronology.    It  forms  a  sacred 


80 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


clock,  whose  face  is  the  sky,  and  from  which 
we  may  read  backwards  or  forwards  for  thou- 
sands on  thousands  of  years  without  the 
possibility  of  confusion,  the  same  as  we  read 
the  hours  and  minutes  on  a  timepiece.  It  is 
what  astronomers  call  "  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes." 

There  is  a  twofold  year,  one  called  the 
siderial  year,  or  year  of  the  stars,  and  the  other 
the  year  of  the  sun  or  seasons,  the  equinoctial 
year.  The  former  is  a  fraction  longer  than 
the  latter.  That  is  to  say,  the  equinoxes  in 
our  ordinary  practical  year  come  a  little  earlier 
every  time  than  the  siderial  time.  This  prece- 
dence in  the  equinoctial  presentations  amounts 
to  about  fifty  seconds  each  year,  and  is  hence 
called  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes.  It  is 
really  a  retardation  in  the  time  of  the  rising 
and  setting  of  the  stars,  by  which  they  come 
about  fifty  seconds  later  every  year.  It  was 
Hipparchus,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before  Christ,  who  first  noted  this  within  his- 
toric times;  and  since  his  day  the  rising  and 
setting  of  the  stars,  as  compared  with  the 
equinoctial  or  common  year,  has  fallen  back 
about  thirty  degrees  from  what  their  time  then 
was.  At  this  rate  of  retardation  it  takes  about 
nine  and  a  half  millions  of  our  days  or  about 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


81 


twenty-five  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight  of  our  years  for  this  rising  and  setting 
to  come  back  again  to  the  exact  point  at  which 
we  begin  the  calculation.  We  thus  have  a 
great  astronomical  cycle,  less  than  a  fourth  of 
which  has  passed  since  man  was  placed  upon 
the  earth.  It  furnishes  a  singularly  valuable 
means  of  noting  and  determining  remote  dates. 
Knowing  the  relative  places  of  the  stars  which 
most  plainly  mark  this  cycle,  we  can  tell 
exactly  how  they  stood  in  any  year  or  date 
since  time  began ;  and  knowing  how  they 
stood  at  the  time  of  any  given  event,  we  can 
thus  calculate  the  precise  year  almost  to  the 
day  and  hour  in  which  that  event  took  place. 

Now  if  the  Great  Pyramid  was  meant  to 
give  us  a  symbolization  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse, this  grand  year  could  not  be  overlooked, 
though  science  has  been  so  long  in  finding  it 
out.  Nor  has  it  been  overlooked.  It  is  all 
here  plainly  enough  to  be  traced,  just  at  the 
place  and  in  the  forms  which  we  might  expect. 
It  is  the  greatest  of  nature's  time-cycles,  and 
its  years  would  naturally  be  signified  in  the 
pyramid's  lowest  units  of  measure  in  the  long- 
est lines  within  the  circle  of  its  perimeter  on 
which  we  read  the  days  and  years.  The  two 
diagonals  of  the  Great  Pyramid's  base,  taken 

6 


82 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


together,  measure  just  as  many  inches  as  this 
cycle  has  years.* 

It  has  only  been  since  the  times  of  Tycho 
Brahe  that  astronomers  began  to  have  any 
assurance  in  determining  the  length  of  this 
period.  The  latest  and  closest  calculations  by 
Bessel  make  it  twenty-five  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-eight  years,  which  is  the 
sum  of  inches  in  the  diagonal  measures  of  this 
pyramid's  base,  more  accurately  given  than  it 
was  known  when  Newton  and  Hutton  wrote. 
It  has  been  thought  to  weaken  the  idea  of 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  architects  thus  to 
symbolize  this  cycle,  since  the  measure  of  the 
diagonals  is  necessarily  resultant  from  the 
lengths  of  the  sides.  But  this  interdepend- 
ence of  the  diagonals  and  square  in  the 
pyramid's  count  of  days,  years,  and  the  grand 
cycle  of  years,  only  proves  that  God  has  so 
constituted  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
that  a  correct  symbolization  of  one  true  count 
of  nature  involves  the  other,  and  that  the 


*  A  singular  coincidence  with  this  has  been  pointed  out  by  R. 
A.  Proctor.  If  we  take  the  pyramid's  cubits  instead  of  its 
inches,  and  multiply  the  number  of  these  cubits  in  a  base  side 
of  the  pyramid  by  the  number  fifty,  and  increase  the  result  in 
proportion  as  the  base  diagonal  exceeds  the  measure  of  the  side, 
the  sum  comes  out  in  the  number  of  years  in  the  great  preces- 
Bional  period. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


83 


mind  which  governed  in  the  framing  of  the 
symbol  was  conscious  of  the  fact. 

It  is  by  means  of  this  cycle,  in  connection 
with  its  star-pointings,  that  the  Great  Pyramid 
also  tells  the  date  of  its  erection.  Sir  John 
Herschel  in  1839,  assuming  that  its  long,  nar- 
row, polished  tubular  entrance  passage  was 
meant  to  be  levelled  at  a  polar  star,  began  to  cal- 
culate back  with  what  data  he  had  to  find  the 
time  when  such  a  star  was  looking  down  that 
tube  from  the  northern  heavens.  Nor  did  he 
fail  to  find  one  answering  the  conditions  near 
about  the  time  assigned  by  other  methods  as 
the  probable  date  at  which  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  built.  Closer  determinations  of  the  exact 
pointings  of  the  grand  tube,  along  with  other 
data,  enabled  other  astronomers  to  repeat  the 
calculation  with  more  determinate  results, 
fixing  upon  the  year  two  thousand  one  hundred 
and  seventy  before  Christ,  as  that  in  which 
this  tube  pointed  to  «  Draconis,  the  then  pole 
star,  at  its  lower  culmination,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  Pleiades,  particularly  Alcyone,  the 
centre  of  the  group,  were  on  the  same  meridian 
above.  And  as  this  was  a  mark  in  the  heavens 
which  could  not  occur  again  for  more  than 
twenty-five  thousand  years  from  that  time, 
and  was  itself  very  extraordinary,  it  has  been 


84 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


accepted  as  meant  to  be  the  sign  of  the  date 
of  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid. 

But  what  is  thus  astronomically  made  out 
is  surprisingly  corroborated  in  another  way. 
These  low  tubular  passage-ways  prove  them- 
selves to  be  time  charts  also.  They  symbolize 
scrolls  of  human  history  as  well  as  point  out 
stars,  and  the  notations  in  the  one  answer 
exactly  to  the  other.  The  inch  as  a  unit  for 
a  year  also  appears  in  these  avenues.  The 
entrance  tube  begins  a  record  with  the  disper- 
sion after  the  flood,  and  dates  from  the 
formation  of  nations.  The  history  is  a  down- 
ward one  under  a  dragon  star  toward  a 
bottomless  pit.  Following  this  decline  for 
about  one  thousand  inches,  which  denote  years, 
we  reach  the  first  upward  passage.  At  that 
date  the  children  of  Israel,  by  special  inter- 
position of  God,  began  their  national  economy 
and  history.  Following  this  ascending  passage 
fifteen  hundred  and  forty-two  inches,  the 
number  of  years  from  the  Exodus  of  Israel  to 
the  birth  of  Christ,  the  last  inch  brings  us  to 
the  beginning  of  the  Grand  Gallery,  which 
sublimely  symbolizes  our  Christian  dispensa- 
tion. Counting  back,  then,  from  the  beginning 
of  this  gallery,  that  is,  from  the  birth  of  Christ, 
1542  inches  to  the  entrance  passage,  and  then 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


85 


up  the  entrance  passage  628  inches  more 
(1542 -f- 628  making  2170,  the  astronomical 
date  of  the  pyramid's  building),  at  the  precise 
point  we  find  a  distinct  and  beautifully  cut 
line  ruled  into  the  stone  sides  of  the  passage 
from  top  to  bottom,  put  there  by  the  builders 
of  the  edifice.* 

And  that  these  lines  were  meant  to  mark 
the  time  of  the  Great  Pyramid's  erection,  the 
indication  is  distinctly  given.  The  joinings 
of  the  stones  of  which  the  sides  of  this  pas- 
sage are  built  are  all  at  right  angles  with  its  in- 
cline, except  in  two  instances.  The  exceptions 
are  the  first  two  joints  preceding  these  lines. 

*  The  existence  of  these  lines,  as  first  reported  by  Prof.  Smyth, 
has  now  been  amply  verified.  Eev.  F.  R.  A.  Glover,  on  his 
way  to  India,  in  1874,  visited  the  Great  Pyramid  with  some 
four  or  five  others,  and  subsequently  wrote  from  Cairo,  under 
date  of  November  12th,  "  One  of  our  party  having  quoted  the 
opinion  expressed  by  Sir  Nelson  Pycroft,  1  that  the  story  of 
these  lines  was  all  bosh,'  I  took  care  to  let  the  party  have  oc- 
ular demonstration  of  their  existence,  and  thus  see  the  folly  of 
the  honorable  baronet  in  declaring  that  '  these  lines  were  not 
there,  whatever  Prof.  Smyth  or  anybody  else  had  said.'  When 
I  had  showed  the  young  gentlemen  above  named  that  the  lines 
were  there,  I  said  to  them,  1  Now  you  see  that  however  diffi- 
cult it  may  be  to  distinguish  them  by  superficial  observers,  the 
lines  are  there,  and  I  shall  ask  you  to  confess  now,  and  at  all 
other  times,  that  you  have  seen  them.1  To  this  they  gladly  con- 
sented ;  and  so  this  story  and  this  verification  of  the  reality  of 
the  lines  will  be  repeated  as  often  as  I  shall  be  called  on  tospeak 
of  the  matter." — Given  in  Casey's  "  Philitis,"  pp.  40,  41. 


86 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


These,  instead  of  being  at  right  angles  with 
the  passage,  are  vertical,  a  figure  of  speech  in 
stone  plainly  indicative  of  lifting  up  or  build- 
ing. And  immediately  after  this  signifying  of 
the  process  of  erection,  comes  these  thin,  fine, 
and  beautiful  lines,  just  two  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  inches  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Grand  Gallery,  which,  as  the  beginning 
of  our  dispensation  would  be  the  time  of 
Christ's  birth. 

Thus,  then,  by  a  double  method,  each  equally 
verifiable  and  distinct,  and  the  one  answering 
exactly  to  the  other,  the  Great  Pyramid  tells 
its  own  age  in  time-marks  as  unmistakable  as 
they  are  true  to  the  mysteries  of  the  sky  and 
to  the  succession  of  events  and  dispensations 
on  the  earth. 

And  in  the  same  way  this  remarkable  pillar 
seems  also  to  indicate  the  true  date  of  the 
flood.  If  we  count  back  from  the  date  of  its 
erection  six  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and 
inquire  into  the  star-markings  with  regard  to 
the  precessional  cycle  at  that  period,  we  find 
the  same  pole  star  a  Draconis  looking  down 
that  same  entrance  passage  as  at  the  time  of 
the  building,  but  then  Aquarius,  the  waterman, 
instead  of  the  Pleiades  is  on  the  meridian  above, 
the  line  crossing  the  very  mouth  of  the  vessel 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


87 


whence  the  mighty  stream  is  issuing.  This 
could  hardly  have  been  without  the  knowledge 
of  the  designer  of  this  edifice,  and  presents  a 
very  grand  and  remarkable  time-mark.  Can 
any  one  fail  to  have  suggested  to  him  what  it 
indicates?  All  nations  have  preserved  the 
tradition  of  it.  The  Scriptures  refer  to  it 
again  and  again  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in 
the  New.  And  the  names  and  pictures  of  the 
constellations,  as  they  still  stand  in  our  alma- 
nacs, unalterably  point  back  to  it.  It  is  the 
great  deluge  of  Noah's  time,  which  the  Great 
Pyramid  thus  locates  chronologically  at  a  point 
within  a  few  years  of  the  mean  of  the  dates 
given  for  that  event  in  the  two  different  ver- 
sions of  the  Scriptures,  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Septuagint,  to  wit,  two  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ,  and  six  hundred  and 
thirty  years  before  the  building  of  the  pyra- 
mid itself. 

Septenaries  and  Sabbaths. 

But  time  reckonings  demand  some  special 
system  of  smaller  fractions  which  cannot  be 
made  by  mere  decades,  tens,  or  hundreds.  The 
year  and  the  day  are  such  distinct  and  em- 
phatic units  of  nature  that  man  is  compelled 
to  observe  them  in  his  notations,  and  they  will 


88 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


not  subdivide  or  multiply  into  each  other  by 
even  decimals.  The  French  savants  tried  it, 
but  utterly  failed,  and  after  all  their  efforts 
were  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  the  old  week 
of  seven  days,  which  God  himself  ordained 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  as  the  easiest 
and  most  practical  system  of  ordinary  time 
com  mensuration.  We  would  therefore  expect 
the  Great  Pyramid  as  a  great  symbol  of  nature 
to  have  some  reference  to  this  also.  And  in 
spite  of  its  intense  fiveness,  it  does  not  fail  to 
present  this  easier  and  sacredly  approved  di- 
vision of  days  into  weeks  of  sevens.  Having 
made  so  grand  a  reference  to  the  Pleiades,  or 
the  seven  stars,  the  elemental  grouping  of 
sevens  at  once  conies  in.  Hence,  the  Grand 
Gallery  is  seven  times  the  average  height  of 
the  other  passages,  and  its  sides  are  built  of 
seven  overlapping  stone  courses  on  either  side. 
So  the  passage  which  leads  under  it  to  the  so- 
called  Queen's  Chamber  has  a  section  distinctly 
though  differently  marked  off  at  its  ends, 
either  of  which  is  the  one-seventh  of  that 
passage's  entire  length.  A  septenary  system 
is  thus  recognized  and  indicated. 

But  it  is  not  simply  septenary,  but  likewise 
sabbatic,  at  least  as  respects  the  Queen's  Cham- 
ber and  the  way  to  it.     There  is  a  seventh 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


89 


marked  off  from  the  six,  and  specially  empha- 
sized. The  last  seventh  of  the  horizontal  way 
to  that  chamber  is  deeply  indented  in  the  floor, 
so  as  to  make  the  passage  there  about  one-third 
higher  than  anywhere  else.  This  alone  would 
be  decisive.  But  the  chamber  thus  approached 
through  a  sabbatic  avenue  is  itself  the  culmi- 
nation of  a  sabbatic  system.  By  reason  of  its 
peaked  and  two-sided  ceiling  it  is  a  seven- 
sided  room  ;  and  the  amount  of  cubic  space 
thus  divided  off  above  the  square  at  the  top 
is  the  high  seventh  of  the  cubic  space  con- 
tained above  the  distinctly  marked  base  line 
which  runs  around  the  room  at  the  height 
of  the  passage  conducting  into  it.  It  is  thus 
a  completed  sabbatism  founded  on  a  sabbatism 
in  the  way  by  which  it  is  approached.  We 
thus  have  all  the  features  of  the  Hebrew  sab- 
batic system  emphatically  pronounced  and 
most  remarkably  built  into  the  rocky  structure 
of  this  pyramid  more  than  six  hundred  years 
before  Moses  and  the  giving  of  the  law, — a 
system  of  which  the  Gentiles  as  such  knew 
little  or  nothing,  though  practically  observed 
by  the  Creator  himself  in  the  great  week  in 
which  the  world  was  made.  And  by  this 
intense  sabbatism  we  are  doubtless  to  identify 
this  part  of  the  pyramid  with  the  Jew,  the 


90 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


same  as  we  identify  the  Grand  Gallery  with 
the  Christian  dispensation. 

The  Centre  of  the  Universe. 

But  there  is  a  yet  grander  thought  embodied 
in  this  wonderful  structure.  Of  its  five  points, 
there  is  one  of  special  pre-eminence,  in  which 
all  its  sides  and  upward  exterior  lines  termi- 
nate. It  is  the  summit  corner,  which  lifts  its 
solemn  index-finger  to  the  sun  at  midday,  and 
by  its  distance  from  the  base  tells  the  mean 
distance  of  that  sun  from  the  earth.  And  if 
we  go  back  to  the  date  which  the  pyramid  gives 
itself,  and  look  for  what  that  finger  pointed  to 
at  midnight,  we  find  a  far  sublimer  indication. 

Science  has  at  last  discovered  that  the  sun 
is  not  a  dead  centre,  with  planets  and  comets 
wheeling  about  it  but  itself  stationary.  It  is 
now  ascertained  that  the  sun  also  is  in  motion, 
carrying  with  it  its  splendid  retinue  of  comets, 
planets,  its  satellites  and  theirs,  around  some 
other  and  vastly  mightier  centre.  Astrono- 
mers are  not  yet  fully  agreed  as  to  wb  at  or  where 
that  centre  is.  Some,  however,  believe  that 
they  have  found  the  direction  of  it  to  be  the 
Pleiades,  and  particularly  Alcyone,  the  central 
one  of  the  renowned  Pleiadic  stars.  To  the 
distinguished  German  astronomer,  Prof.  J.  H. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


91 


Maedler,  belongs  the  honor  of  having  made 
this  discovery.  Alcyone,  then,  as  far  as  sci- 
ence has  been  able  to  perceive,  would  seem  to 
be  "  the  midnight  throne  "  in  which  the  whole 
system  of  gravitation  has  its  central  seat, 
and  from  which  the  Almighty  governs  His 
universe.  And  here  is  the  wonderful  corre- 
sponding fact,  that  at  the  date  of  the  Great 
Pyramid's  completion,  at  midnight  of  the  au- 
tumnal equinox,  and  hence  the  true  beginning 
of  the  year  as  still  preserved  in  the  traditions 
of  many  nations,  the  Pleiades  were  distributed 
over  the  meridian  of  this  pyramid,  with  Al- 
cyone (j)  Tauri)  precisely  on  the  line. 

Here,  then,  is  a  pointing  of  the  highest  and 
sublimest  character  that  mere  human  science 
has  ever  been  able  so  much  as  to  hint,  and 
which  would  seem  to  breathe  an  unsuspected 
and  mighty  meaning  into  that  speech  of  God 
to  Job  when  He  demanded,  "  Canst  thou  bind 
the  sweet  influences  of  Pleiades  ?" 

Whence  this  Wisdom? 

Could  all  these  things  have  been  mere  coin- 
cidences? Is  it  possible  that  they  just  hap- 
pened so  out  of  blind  chance  ?  Then  what  is 
the  reason  that  nothing  of  the  sort  has  hap- 
pened in  the  scores  of  other  Egyptian  pyramids? 


92 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


And  if  they  were  really  designed  by  the 
builders,  whence  then  came  this  surprising 
intelligence,  unsurpassed  and  uncontradictable 
by  the  best  scientific  attainments  of  modern 
man  ? 

Shall  we  credit  it  all  to  old  Egypt?  We 
find  it  memorialized  in  Egypt,  but  could  it  have 
been  of  Egypt?  Not  far  can  we  go  in  such  an 
inquiry  till  we  find  the  way  impassably  choked 
up  against  any  such  conclusion.  The  old 
Egyptians  never  were  a  highly  scientific  peo- 
ple. Bunsen  says,  "  Their  astronomy  was 
strictly  provincial,  calculated  only  for  the 
meridian  of  Egypt ;"  and  that  "  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac  were  wholly  unknown  to  them  till 
the  reign  of  Trajan."  Brugsch  says,  "  It  was 
based  on  empiricism,  and  not  on  that  mathe- 
matical science  which  calculates  the  movements 
of  the  stars."  Strabo  admits  that  the  Egyp- 
tians of  his  day  were  destitute  of  scientific  as- 
tronomical knowledge.  Renan  asserts,  and 
Edward  Everett  had  said  before  him,  that 
"  Not  a  reformer,  not  a  great  poet,  not  a  great 
artist,  not  a  savant,  not  a  philosopher,  is  to  be 
met  with  in  all  their  history."  Never,  there- 
fore, was  it  in  their  power  to  understand,  much 
less  originate  and  enunciate,  the  sublime  sci- 
ence found  in  the  Great  Pyramid.    The  other 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


93 


pyramids  were  of  Egypt,  but  they  are  totally 
wanting  in  all  these  elements  of  intellectual- 
ity. We  look  in  vain  for  any  traces  that  the 
old  Egyptians  ever  understood  the  mathemat- 
ical 7r?  much  less  construct  so  original  a  symbol 
of  it.  There  is  no  proof  that  they  ever  had 
any  appreciation  of  the  pyramid's  system  of 
numbers,  or  knew  anything  of  the  sun's  dis- 
tance or  the  earth's  form  or  weight.  There  is 
no  sign  that  they  ever  used  the  pyramid  inch, 
or  the  cubit  of  twenty-five  inches,  or  any 
measure  founded  on  intelligent  earth  commen- 
suration.  There  is  nothing  to  show  that  they 
comprehended  the  precessional  cycle,  or  ever 
made  use  of  it.  They  computed  by  the  short 
and  confusing  Sothic  cycle  of  one  thousand 
four  hundred  and  sixty-one  years,  and  mistook 
even  that,  making  it  a  day  in  every  four 
years  shorter  than  it  really  is.  Their  govern- 
ing star  was  not  Alcyone,  the  happy  star  of 
celestial  tranquillity  and  peace,  but  Sirius,  the 
fiery  dogstar,  whose  rising  and  setting  with 
the  sun  marks  "  the  dog  days," — the  most 
pestilential  days  of  all  the  year.  It  is  a  bright 
and  flaring  star,  indeed,  but  of  ill  omen  to  the 
northern  and  more  classic  peoples — a  star 
of  which  Homer  sung  as  one 

Whose  burning  breath 
Taints  the  red  air  with  fevers,  plagues,  and  death. 


94 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


— a  star  fittingly  auspicious  of  the  beast  worship 
of  the  people  who  regulated  their  grand  cycle 
by  it.  And  when  we  further  consider  how 
perfectly  clear  and  pure  the  Great  Pyramid  is 
from  all  marks  or  traces  of  old  Egypt's  super- 
abounding  idolatry,  which  "  changed  the  glory 
of  the  uncorruptible  God  into  an  image  made 
like  to  corruptible  man,  and  to  birds,  and  four- 
footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things,"  defiling 
every  object  with  this  base  harlotry  of  the 
human  soul ;  it  becomes  utterly  impossible  to 
believe  that  this  grand  pillar,  with  its  still 
grander  scientific  embodiments,  could  ever 
have  sprung  from  Egypt,  though  "  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  Egyptians  "  had  been  concen- 
trated to  produce  it.  Many  pyramids  did 
Egypt  build  before  the  costly  fashion  went  out 
of  vogue ;  but  even  with  the  great  original 
before  them,  there  was  not  genius  and  obser- 
vation enough  in  all  the  land  to  make  so  much 
as  a  correct  copy  of  it.  Of  all  the  enormous 
mounds  of  brick  or  stone  which  Egypt  itself 
set  up,  there  is  not  one  to  tell  of  aught  but 
vaulting  ambition  and  blundering  imitation. 
From  the  least  unto  the  greatest  there  is 
neither  science  nor  sense  in  any  of  them. 
How  then  could  Egypt  have  originated  this 
great  science-laden  forerunner  of  them  all  ? 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


95 


Whence  then  came  this  wisdom?  Some 
direct  us  to  Babylon  as  the  fountain-head  of 
science  and  astronomy.  And  the  Chaldaeans 
were,  indeed,  great  builders  and  astrologers. 
They  worshipped  the  heavenly  bodies.  Among 
them,  if  among  any  of  the  nations,  may  we 
best  hope  to  find  the  primal  treasure-house  of 
the  knowledge  we  have  been  deciphering,  if 
it  be  at  all  of  earth.  To  the  planet  temple  of 
Nebo,  at  Borsippa,  are  we  above  all  directed 
as  the  best  memorial  they  have  left  us.  But 
the  Borsippa  temple  comes  seventeen  hundred 
years  after  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  yet  sinks 
into  insignificance  beside  it.  Its  orientation 
has  been  specially  lauded  as  strikingly  scien- 
tific for  that  remote  age,  and  yet  its  builders 
missed  it  by  six  degrees !  And  so  lopsided 
was  that  construction  according  to  the  best 
reproductions  of  its  plan, — its  surface  so  broken 
with  corners  of  terraces,  panelled  walls, 
priests'  dwellings,  and  flights  of  steps,  that  its 
warmest  admirers  do  not  pretend  to  find  any- 
thing scientific  in  its  form  or  shape.  It  was 
dedicated  to  the  planets,  and  proposed  to  enu- 
merate them  in  its  diverse  colored  stages,  and 
yet  it  knew  nothing  of  Uranus,  Neptune,  or 
the  planetoids,  and  counted  in  the  earth's 
moon  as  one !    With  such  an  astronomy  the 


96 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Great  Pyramid  could  not  possibly  have  been 
made  what  it  is.  There  is,  indeed,  a  system 
of  Babylonian  metres  which  has  penetrated 
more  or  less  into  all  civilized  countries,  prin- 
cipally through  Alexander  and  the  Greeks  ; 
but  it  was  a  system  of  sixes  and  sevens,  and  not 
of  fives  and  tens.  Its  cubit  was  between  twenty 
and  twenty -one  inches,  and  not  the  twenty- 
five  of  the  earth-commensurated  cubit  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  and  the  sacred  cubit  of  the 
Hebrews.  And  no  more  in  Babylon's  metrol- 
ogy than  in  Babylon's  planet  temple  is  there 
any  real  science  worthy  of  the  name.  There 
is  measure,  but  it  is  meaningless.  There  is 
grand  building,  but  it  is  only  fanciful  piling  up 
of  bricks  and  stories  which  tells  of  nothing 
but  the  pride  and  idolatry  of  the  builders  and 
their  blundering  in  the  plain  things  of  our 
planetary  economy,  beyond  which  there  is 
nothing.  Never  from  such  a  source  could  the 
Great  Pyramid  have  come. 

Whence,  then,  came  this  wisdom  ?  Step  by 
step  we  are  being  driven  to  the  border  line  of 
the  territory  of  miracle  and  inspiration.  Nor 
do  I  know  how  we  can  honestly  help  ourselves 
against  crossing  it  for  an  explanation.  Prof. 
Proctor  has  recently  undertaken  to  solve  the 
whole  matter  on  very  easy  human  grounds, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


97 


but  the  flippancy  with  which  he  disposes  of 
some  of  the  problems,  while  taking  no  account 
whatever  of  others,  shows  that,  astronomer  as 
he  is,  he  has  not  fully  taken  in  the  case.  The 
whole  thing  bears  the  impress  of  an  intelli- 
gence so  high,  a  wisdom  so  unaccountable,  and 
a  beneficence  so  genial  toward  the  wants  of 
man,  that  no  one  yet  has  even  begun  to  show 
how  it  can  be  less  than  supernatural.  And 
yet  our  presentations  have  followed  but  one 
line  of  inquiry,  while  there  are  others  of  still 
more  striking  character  and  importance.  I 
have  kept  myself  thus  far  to  the  department 
of  science  alone.  But  there  remain  sundry 
other  fields  full  of  wonder,  on  which  I  have 
not  time  now  to  touch. 

Six  hundred  years  had  this  pyramid  been 
built  before  Moses  began  to  write  the  Penta- 
teuch. And  what  if  passages  should  be  found 
scattered  through  the  Scriptures  which  will 
not  intelligibly  interpret  without  it  ?  What 
if  all  the  great  doctrines  of  Revelation,  and  all 
the  great  characteristics  of  the  ages,  and  all 
the  mightiest  facts  in  human  history  and  God's 
administrations,  should  be  found  imbedded  in 
its  rocky  symbolisms?  What  if  we  should 
find  it  prophesied  of  as  a  grand  memorial  of 
Jehovah,  meant  to  be  uncovered  and  read  in 

7 


98 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


these  last  evil  times,  in  confutation  of  the  de- 
grading philosophies  and  vain  conceits  which 
men  untaught  of  God  would  have  us  accept 
in  place  of  the  word  of  Revelation  ?  What 
if  we  should  hear  from  out  its  dark  and  long- 
hidden  chambers  and  avenues  just  where  we 
are  in  the  great  calendar  of  time,  what  scenes 
are  next  to  be  expected  in  the  affairs  of  our 
world  and  what  unexampled  changes  presently 
await  us  ?  What  if  it  should  turn  out  to  be  a 
clear  and  manifest  prophecy  of  man's  constant 
native  deterioration,  of  his  redemption  by 
miracle,  and  of  his  destiny  forever,  all  written 
out  beforehand  in  "  the  grandeur  of  immortal 
stone  ?"  What  if  it  should  prove  itself  an 
earlier  and  independent  duplicate  of  God's 
volume  of  inspiration?  What  majesty  and 
consequence  wrould  it  then  assume  in  the  eyes 
of  all  right-thinking  men  !  To  what  a  crush- 
ing test  would  our  modern  scientists  then  be 
brought  with  their  theories  of  creation  with- 
out a  God  and  their  doctrines  of  salvation 
without  a  Saviour  ! 

Nor  is  it  an  extravagant  anticipation  to  ex- 
pect even  thus  much  from  this  wonderful 
pillar.  Once  admit,  as  I  believe  it  will  yet 
have  to  be  admitted,  that  superhuman  intelli- 
gence is  in  it,  and  there  is  then  every  reason 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


99 


to  count  on  finding  the  whole  story.  God 
never  deals  in  fragments  without  making  them 
symbols  of  the  whole.  And  I  shall  be  much 
mistaken  if  it  does  not  turn  out,  without  forc- 
ing of  facts  or  dealing  in  fancies,  that  in  these 
rocks  and  their  emplacements  are  treasured 
up  from  hoar  antiquity  the  whole  plan  of  God 
in  grace  and  miracle  as  well  as  in  the  universe 
of  nature.  Some  other  opportunity  may  be 
afforded  for  us  to  enter  and  survey  this  field 
and  thus  penetrate  further  into  this  glorious 
mountain  of  glorious  thoughts. 

Meanwhile,  the  mighty  structure  stands  im- 
mortal in  its  greatness,  lifting  its  brow  the 
nearest  to  heaven  of  all  earthly  works,  and 
asserting  in  every  feature  something  more 
than  human.  With  all  of  man's  workman- 
ship that  went  before  it  in  utter  ruin,  it  stands 
only  the  more  readable  from  the  damages  of 
time,  the  grand  and  indestructible  monument 
of  the  true  primeval  man.  Upon  its  pedestal 
of  rock,  battered  by  the  buffetings  of  forty 
centuries,  it  stands,  upspringing  like  a  tongue 
of  fire  kindled  of  God  to  light  the  course  of 
time  down  to  its  final  goal  and  consummation. 


Old  Time,  himself  so  old,  is  like  a  child, 

And  can't  remember  when  these  blocks  were  piled 

Or  caverns  scooped;  but,  with  amazed  eye, 

He  seems  to  pause,  like  other  standers-by, 

Half  thinking  how  the  wonders  here  made  known 

Were  born  in  ages  older  than  his  own. 


(  100) 


MODERN  DISCOVERIES  AND  BIBLICAL  CONNECTIONS. 

T  was  lately  my  privilege  to  present 
some  account  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
and  of  that  wonderful  scientific 
knowledge  embodied  in  it  which 
has  induced  the  belief  that  a  higher  wisdom 
than  man's  was  concerned  in  its  erection.  I 
now  resume  the  subject  to  present  still  other 
facts  tending  to  the  same  conclusion. 

A  learned  and  able  historical  critic  and 
lecturer  recently  stated  to  his  audience  in  this 
city  that  what  is  thus  claimed  for  the  Great 
Pyramid  may  be  true,  and  likely  is  true.  And 
if  such  is  the  probability  or  even  the  possibil- 
ity, the  matter  is  not  only  worthy  of  our  ex- 
amination, but  it  would  seem  to  be  our  duty 
to  test  it  in  every  possible  field  of  inquiry. 

The  theory  is  somewhat  startling,  and  al- 
together so  new  and  wonderful  that  some 
will  doubtless  be  disposed  to  shrink  from  it  as 
nothing  but  an  extravagant  fancy.  It  ought, 
however,  to  modify  such  a  feeling  when  we 
remember  that  we  live  in  an  age  of  wonders, 

(101) 


102 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


an  age  which  answers  well  to  the  ancient 
prophecy  of  a  time  bordering  on  the  end,  when 
men  would  become  great  travellers  and  ex- 
plorers, and  as  a  consequence  the  stock  of 
human  knowledge  be  remarkably  increased. 

Modern  Progress  and  Discoveries. 

There  certainly  never  was  another  period 
of  such  intense  running  to  and  fro  in  the  earth 
or  of  such  astounding  growth  in  the  range  of 
human  information  as  this  in  which  we  live. 
Events,  inventions,  and  discoveries  the  most 
momentous  crowd  upon  each  other  beyond 
our  power  to  keep  pace  with  them.  Their 
multiplicity  bewilders  and  confounds  us.  The 
whole  life,  condition,  and  dwelling-place  of 
civilized  man  is  being  revolutionized  by  them. 
We  travel  now  in  palaces  with  every  ease  and 
luxury,  and  faster  than  the  winds.  We  con- 
verse by  electricity  across  oceans  and  conti- 
nents. We  spin,  and  knit,  and  weave,  and 
print,  and  even  calculate  by  automatic  ma- 
chinery. We  copy  nature  and  record  her 
aspects  by  sunbeams.  The  whole  world  has 
become  one  neighborhood.  Men  have  made 
visits  to  the  poles,  mapped  the  currents  of  the 
sea,  belted  the  earth  in  every  direction  with 
lines  of  railroads  and  steamers,  thrown  down 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


103 


the  walls  which  for  ages  separated  between 
nations,  brought  all  types  and  kindreds  of  men 
face  to  face,  and  rendered  a  journey  around  the 
globe  a  mere  summer's  recreation. 

And  especially  in  recoveries  from  the  long- 
forgotten  past,  in  the  reconstruction  of  history 
before  the  historic  periods,  and  in<  the  bringing 
to  light  of  the  wisdom  and  science  of  prim- 
eval ages,  our  times  have  been  extraordinarily 
rich  and  fruitful.  The  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury has  been  a  very  resurrection  time  in  this 
regard.  Ages  of  which  we  had  only  the  dim- 
mest hints  have  been  marvellously  recalled  from 
their  oblivion.  With  the  ability  to  decipher 
hieroglyphics  and  cuneiform  inscriptions,  old 
worlds  have  newly  opened  to  our  contempla- 
tion. By  the  mastery  of  languages,  the  tracing 
of  them  to  their  primal  sources  and  connec- 
tions, the  searching  out  and  bringing  together 
of  the  scattered  fragments  of  antiquity,  and 
the  exhumation  of  ancient  remains,  the  origi- 
nal migrations  of  the  race  have  become  trace- 
able, and  much  of  their  long-lost  history  has 
been  reclaimed.  Things  hitherto  referred  to 
the  department  of  myth,  fable,  and  dream, 
have  suddenly  assumed  the  character  of  au- 
thentic traditions.  A  little  while  ago,  "  Erech, 
and  Accad,  and  Calneh,  in  the  land  of  Shinar," 


104 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  Calah,  and  Resin  of  Asshur,  and  Ellasar, 
and  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  were  mere  names 
in  Genesis,  with  scarce  another  known  trace 
of  them ;  but  the  mounds  of  Mesopotamia 
have  yielded  up  their  bricks  and  stones  to 
modern  research,  and  their  long-silent  tongues 
have  been  loosed  to  tell  where  these  places 
stood  and  what  mighty  peoples  once  inhabited 
them.  Babylon  and  Nineveh  have  thus  un- 
bosomed their  records  to  testify  how  truly  the 
Bible  spoke  of  them  and  what  wealth,  lux- 
ury, arrogance,  and  power  once  were  theirs. 
The  names  and  exploits  of  their  kings,  their 
conquests,  their  religions,  their  gods,  their  sci- 
ences, and  their  styles  of  life  now  stand  in 
many  instances  revealed  before  our  eyes. 
Arabia,  till  lately  thought  to  be  a  mere  desert 
waste,  and  so  marked  on  the  maps,  has  dis- 
closed grand  seats  of  empire,  with  civilizations 
once  existent  there  superior  even  to  Greece 
and  Rome.  Moab's  rocks  have  become  vocal 
with  attestations  of  the  sacred  records.  Ba- 
shan's  giant  cities,  and  houses  covered  with 
stone,  and  gates  and  doors  of  hinged  rocks, 
and  walls  and  bars  proportioned  to  their  once 
giant  occupants,  have  been  visited  and  their 
ancient  wonders  verified.  Palestine  has  been 
resurveyed,  its  old  localities  identified,  and  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


105 


miracles  of  its  history  marvellously  authenti- 
cated. Schliemann  is  uncovering  Homeric 
cities  and  bringing  up  Homeric  heroes  and 
the  old  Homeric  civilization  out  of  their  long- 
lost  tombs.  Even  the  whole  way  back  through 
prehistoric  ages  to  Nimrod  and  Noah  is  being 
laid  open  and  lighted  up  by  modern  explora- 
tions. And  why  should  it  amaze  us  that 
from  the  land  of  Egypt  also, — that  land  of 
oldest  and  most  numerous  monuments, — that 
land  where  nothing  perishes, — that  land  so 
specially  chosen  of  God  as  the  theatre  of  his 
most  stupendous  miracles, — there  should  also 
be  a  bursting  forth  of  unsuspected  light  to 
mingle  some  superior  beams  with  the  general 
illumination  ? 

Egypt's  Past. 

And  if  perchance  these  new  disclosures 
should  be  of  a  character  more  sacred  and  im- 
posing than  what  is  being  exhumed  in  other 
lands,  it  is  what  we  might  reasonably  antici- 
pate from  a  country  so  singularly  linked  with 
some  of  the  most  marvellous  Divine  adminis- 
trations. It  is  a  type  of  the  world,  indeed, 
but  in  its  milder  aspect;  the  darker  type  is 
Babylon.  Even  Bunsen  tells  us  that  Egypt 
has  ever  been  the  instrument  for  furthering 


106 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  great  designs  of  Providence.  It  has  been 
at  least  the  principal  background  of  the  most 
illustrious  displays  which  have  marked  the 
career  of  God's  chosen  people.  Israel  could 
not  become  a  nation  without  Egypt.  The 
first  and  greatest  of  Israel's  prophets  was  res- 
cued from  a  watery  grave,  nurtured,  schooled, 
and  outwardly  fitted  for  his  sublime  legation 
by  the  daughter  of  Egypt's  king.  Abraham 
himself,  though  from  quite  another  section  of 
the  world,  was  ministered  unto  by  Egypt. 
Joseph  became  the  illustrious  type  of  Christ 
by  connection  with  Egypt.  Humanly  speak- 
ing, Jacob  and  his  house  would  have  come  to 
a  sad  end  had  it  not  been  for  Egypt,  which 
furnished  him  with  bread,  welcomed  him  to 
its  richest  lands,  and  gave  his  body  a  royal 
burial  when  he  died.  To  Egypt's  sovereign 
God  sent  that  double  dream  of  the  kine  and 
the  ears  of  corn,  which  proved  the  means  of 
Joseph's  exaltation  and  of  the  salvation  of  so 
many  peoples.  Even  when  the  blessed  Jesus 
was  born  into  our  world  Egypt  was  his  asylum 
from  the  bloody  sword  of  Herod,  and  once 
more  and  most  literally  of  all  were  those 
words  of  Jehovah  fulfilled,  "  Out  of  Egypt 
have  I  called  my  son."  It  was  Egypt  that 
gave  to  mankind  the  first  translation  of  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


107 


Hebrew  Scriptures.  It  was  Egypt  that  proved 
the  stronghold  of  Christianity  after  Jerusalem 
fell.  It  is  from  Egypt  that  we  have  the 
noblest  and  greatest  fathers  of  the  Christian 
Church.  And  however  ignoble  now  may  be 
the  land  or  its  population,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  God  has  something  further  to  accomplish 
by  means  of  a  country  of  which  he  has  thus 
availed  himself  in  the  past,  and  that  out  of  it 
will  yet  come  some  of  the  greatest  of  sacred 
marvels  which  are  to  mark  the  closing  periods 
of  time. 

The  Great  Pyramid's  Disclosures. 

Some  may  doubt  with  regard  to  such  antici- 
pations ;  but  they  are  already  being  realized 
in  the  recent  revelations  of  the  Great  Pyramid. 
For  forty  centuries  enshrouded  in  the  deepest 
mystery,  that  mighty  pillar  has  at  length  begun 
to  yield  up  its  secrets.  As  a  mere  building  it 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  world,  in  age,  in 
vastness  of  dimensions,  in  perfection  of  work- 
manship, and  in  the  practical  mastery  of  prob- 
lems too  hard  for  all  our  boasted  modern  art 
and  machinery.  There  is  not  an  instance  in 
all  the  vast  structure  in  which  its  architects 
miscalculated  or  failed.  They  built  for  per- 
manence.   They  planned  their  work  to  sur- 


108 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


vive  all  the  commotions  of  nature  and  all  the 
Vandalism  of  man.  Signally,  also,  have  they 
succeeded.  Not  a  stone  necessary  to  its  ulter- 
ior purpose  has  come  short  of  its  office.  A 
monument  has  thus  come  down  to  us  from 
beyond  the  classic  ages  which  exalts  and  dig- 
nifies the  land  in  which  it  stands.  It  is  an 
edifice  of  stones  so  wisely  chosen,  so  justly 
prepared,  so  wonderfully  handled,  so  admir- 
ably joined,  and  in  the  proper  places  so 
exquisitely  cut  and  polished,  that  it  is  without 
an  equal  in  any  land.  It  is  likewise  pervaded 
with  the  highest  intelligence.  There  is  not 
an  inch  of  it  which  does  not  speak.  Even 
after  the  lapse  of  four  thousand  years  of  ob- 
servation, study,  and  experience,  there  is  not 
a  nation  or  people  whose  wisdom  or  every-day 
affairs  it  is  not  capable  of  improving.  There 
is  reason  to  think  that  we  have  not  yet  reached 
the  fulness  of  its  grand  symbolizations ;  but 
if  nothing  more  should  come  of  the  further 
study  of  it,  enough  has  been  ascertained  to 
render  it  the  most  interesting  problem  of  our 
times. 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Prophets. 

It  would  also  seem  as  if  God's  inspired 
prophets  knew  of  this  marvellous  pillar  and 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE 


109 


regarded  it  as  a  sacred  wonder.  The  Greeks 
as  early  as  Alexander's  time  placed  it  at  the 
head  of  their  list  of  "  the  seven  wonders  of 
the  world."  But  Jeremiah  before  them  wrote 
of  "  signs  and  wonders  in  the  land  of  Egypt/' 
and  of  the  placing  of  them  there  by  "  the 
Great,  the  Mighty  God,  the  Lord  of  hosts" 
(Jer.  32  :  18-20),  which  would  seem  to  refer  to 
this  pyramid.  He  was  in  Egypt  when  he 
made  this  record.  He  went  there  at  the  fall 
of  Jerusalem  that  he  might  write  his  prophe- 
cies and  send  them  to  his  captive  countrymen 
in  Babylon.  His  method  was  to  fortify  his 
testimony  by  appealing  to  all  the  records  and 
monuments  which  Jehovah  had  made  of  his 
power  and  greatness  in  the  earth.  He  accord- 
ingly refers  to  "  signs  and  wonders  in  the 
land  of  Egypt,"  of  which  he  says  that  they 
still  existed  when  he  wrote, — "unto  this  day." 
He  is  commonly  thought  to  allude  to  the  mir- 
acles of  the  Exodus,  which  certainly  were 
"  signs  and  wonders  "  exactly  to  his  purpose. 
But  those  are  specifically  noted  in  a  subse- 
quent verse,  and  in  phraseology  better  suited 
to  them.  The  language  here  suggests  some- 
thing monumental,  something  locally  fixed. 
It  naturally  implies  a  Divine  memorial,  con- 
tinuously abiding,  and  then  still  to  be  seen  in 


110 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Egypt.  It  was  something  "  set '  there.  The 
word  is  the  same  in  Hebrew  and  in  English, 
and  with  much  the  same  sense  in  both.*  It 
may  be  metaphorically  used  with  regard  to 
miracles,  but  when  used  of  things  continuous 
for  hundreds  of  years  after  the  placing,  the 
sense  is  cramped  and  strained  when  applied  to 
miracles  like  those  of  the  Exodus,  which  dis- 
appeared with  the  relenting  of  Pharaoh  and 
the  departure  of  Israel.  So  keenly  has  this 
been  felt  that  critics  have  been  forced  to  speak 
of  a  probable  substitution  of  one  word  in  place 
of  another,  and  men  have  cast  about  for  some 
remaining  physical  marks  of  the  Mosaic  mir- 
acles in  order  to  satisfy  the  terms  of  the  record. 
Hence  we  read  in  Trapp's  Commentary  on  the 
passage,  "  Orosis  writeth  that  the  tracks  of 
Pharaoh's  chariot-wheels  are  yet  to  be  seen  at 
the  Red  Sea !"  The  Great  Pyramid  on  the 
new  hypothesis  would  nobly  help  such  critics 
and  commentators  out  of  the  mud,  and  grandly 
meet  the  exact  phraseology  of  the  prophet. 
Interpreted  then  by  the  most  cogent  laws  of 
language  we  here  have  a  Scriptural  recognition 

*  It  is  again  and  again  rendered,  to  make,  to  put,  to  cause  to 
be,  to  order,  to  appoint,  to  ordain,  to  place,  to  set  up,  to  erect. 
Gesenius  gives  as  its  first  and  main  sense,  "  to  set,  to  place,  to 
put,  referring  to  persons  or  things  which  stand  erect.''1  Vatablua 
translates  it  by  posuisti,  placed,  set  up,  erected,  built. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Ill 


of  some  enduring  monument  in  Egypt,  built 
by  God's  appointment,  and  meant  to  be  a  wit- 
ness to  him. 

Isaiah  makes  a  similar  reference  of  a  still 
more  circumstantial  and  positive  character. 
In  chap.  19  :  19,  20,  he  prophesies,  "  In  that 
day  shall  there  be  an  altar  to  the  Lord  in  the 
midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  a  pillar  at 
the  border  thereof  to  the  Lord,  and  it  shall 
be  for  a  sign  and  for  a  witness  unto  the  Lord 
of  hosts  in  the  land  of  Egypt." 

This  "  altar "  and  "  pillar "  are  not  two 
things,  but  one  and  the  same  as  sundry  expos- 
itors have  observed.  The  language  is  poetical, 
and  has  the  common  parallelism  of  Hebrew 
poetry.  Given  in  the  form  and  sense  of  the 
original,  it  would  read 

"  In  that  day  there  is  an  altar  to  Jehovah 

In  the  midst  of  the  land  of  Egypt ; 
Even  a  pillar  at  the  border  thereof  to  Jehovah, 
And  it  shall  be  for  a  sign  and  witness  to  Jehovah  of  hosts 

In  the  land  of  Egypt." 

Everything  in  this  prophecy  seems  to  look  to 
the  Great  Pyramid.  It  refers  to  some  specific 
and  telling  monument,  and  all  its  terms  most 
fully  apply  to  this  marvellous  pillar.  There  is 
nothing  else  known  to  which  they  do  apply 
in  literal  accuracy  and  fulness. 


112 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Note  how  admirably  the  titles  fit.  "Altar" 
in  Hebrew  means  "the  lion  of  God."  The 
Great  Pyramid  is  pre-eminently  the  lion  among 
all  earthly  buildings,  and  the  new  theory 
claims  that  it  is  Divine.  The  altar  as  described 
by  Ezekiel  is  largely  pyramidal  in  form,  and 
is  called  "  the  mountain  of  God."  And  a 
mountain,  surely,  is  the  Great  Pyramid,  and 
one  of  a  very  remarkable  character.  The 
sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  call  it  a  moun- 
tain— Rncm-adri — "  the  golden  mountain."  It 
is  "a  pillar,"  and  hence  not  a  sacrificial  but 
a  memorial  altar.  It  is  a  mammoth  obelisk* — 
one  great  individual  shaft, — and  now  also 
believed  to  be  sacred. 

The  location  likewise  corresponds.  The 
Great  Pyramid  is  the  hub  or  centre  of  Egypt's 
curved  shoreline,  and  so  is  "  in  the  midst  of 
the  land,"  as  nothing  else  to  be  thought  of 
ever  was.  Yet  it  is  also  "  at  the  border  there- 
of." It  stands  on  the  extreme  southern  limit 
of  Lower  Egypt,  and  on  the  natural  dividing 
line  between  the  two  Egypts.  It  is  thus 
doubly  "  in  the  midst "  and  doubly  "  at  the 
border." 

The  time  also  answers.  Six  times  the  note 
is  sounded,  and  in  every  instance  in  the  usual 
Messianic  and   eschatological  formula — "in 


A  MIRACLE  TS  STONE. 


113 


that  day," — a  day  which  nowhere  finally  lo- 
cates this  side  of  the  period  of  "  the  restitution 
of  all  things."  Whatever  else  the  prediction 
may  cover,  it  cannot  therefore  be  considered 
exhausted  yet,  and  necessarily  brings  us  down 
to  the  times  bordering  on  the  end.  By  per- 
mission of  Ptolemy  Philometor,  certain  Jews 
built  a  quasi  temple  and  altar  at  Heliopolis, 
which  some  take  as  the  subject  of  the  proph- 
ecy. But  that  erection  was  against  the  law 
and  could  not  be  called  Divine,  though  by 
man's  self-will  intended  to  be  so.  Besides,  that 
was  an  altar  of  sacrifice  and  not  a  memorial 
pillar  as  here  described.  Others  think  the 
reference  is  to  the  establishment  of  churches 
in  Egypt,  which  were  numerous  in  the  early 
Christian  ages.  But  these  properly  had  no 
visible  local  altar  at  all,  neither  had  they  any 
one  monumental  u  pillar  "  to  answer  this  de- 
scription. When  this  altar  gives  forth  its  wit- 
ness to  Jehovah,  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Israel 
are  to  become  a  holy  triad  of  divinely  ap- 
proved peoples,  which  has  never  yet  occurred. 
"  A  Saviour,  and  a  great  one,"  is  then  to  come 
to  Egypt,  and  deliver  from  all  oppressors.  But 
this  is  the  language  designating  the  glorious 
Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  we  degrade  and 
profane  it  by  applying  it  as  some  have  done  to 

8 


114 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  pagan  conqueror,  Alexander.  Christ,  in- 
deed, came  to  Egypt  in  his  infancy,  and  after- 
wards in  his  Gospel,  but  never  in  the  character 
of  a  national  deliverer.  We  therefore  look  in 
vain  for  any  true  and  exhaustive  fulfilment  of 
this  prophecy  in  the  past.  It  must  refer  to 
the  latter  times,  and  it  fits  to  nothing  known 
but  the  Great  Pyramid.  Even  Vitringa,  as 
early  as  the  beginning  of  the  last  century, 
threw  out  the  idea  in  his  commentary  on  this 
place  that  some  one  or  other  of  the  existing 
monuments  of  Egypt  is  here  involved. 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Book  of  Job. 

There  is  a  still  more  distinct  reference  to 
the  Great  Pyramid  in  the  Book  of  Job,  38  : 
1-7.  We  there  have  one  of  the  grandest  de- 
scriptions in  the  Bible.  The  speaker  is  God, 
and  the  subject  is  the  creation  of  the  earth. 
The  picture  is  the  building  of  an  edifice. 
Elsewhere  in  the  book  the  earth  is  said  to  be 
hung  upon  nothing  ;  so  that  we  must  not  sup- 
pose ignorance  of  the  real  facts  when  the  earth 
is  here  likened  to  a  building  resting  on  foun- 
dations. To  overwhelm  the  pride  of  the 
human  understanding,  the  Lord  answered  Job 
out  of  the  whirlwind  and  said,  "Who  is  this 
that  darkeneth   counsel  by  words  without 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


115 


knowledge  ?  Gird  up  now  thy  loins  like  a 
man,  for  I  will  demand  of  thee,  and  answer 
thou  me.  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  ?  Declare,  if  thou 
hast  understanding.  Who  laid  the  measures 
thereof,  if  thou  knowest  ?  Or  who  hath 
stretched  the  line  upon  it  ?  Whereupon  are 
the  foundations  fastened  [or  "  made  to  sink  " 
as  a  seal  into  wax]  ?  Or  who  laid  the  corner- 
stone thereof,  when  the  morning  stars  sang  to- 
gether, and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy?" 

"  Behold  here  the  architecture  of  God  ! 
The  terms  are  those  of  the  geometer — the 
master  builder.  Here  are  the  bases,  the  joint- 
ings, the  lines,  the  height,  the  corner-stone, 
the  measures !"  And  the  style  of  the  building 
is  unquestionably  the  Pyramid.  That  "corner- 
stone "  spoken  of  in  the  singular,  its  emphatic 
isolation  from  "  the  foundations,"  and  the 
singing  and  shouting  of  the  heavenly  hosts 
over  the  mighty  achievement  at  the  laying  of 
that  particular  stone,  require  the  proper  py- 
ramidal edifice.  The  picture  will  not  interpret 
of  anything  else.  That  corner-stone  could  not 
be  at  the  base,*  for  others  were  there  against 


*  This  is  also  distinctly  expressed  in  the  ancient  Coptic  ver- 
sion, translated  by  Archdeacon  Tattam.  There  in  the  sixth 
verse  the  language  is,  "  Who  hath  laid  the  corner-stone  upon 


116 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


which  no  such  marked  distinction  in  truth 
existed,  and  its  laying  would  then  have  been 
at  the  beginning,  at  which  time  this  celestial 
celebration  would  be  out  of  place.  Even 
Barnes,  contrary  to  the  erroneous  imagery  by 
which  he  tries  to  interpret  the  passage,  agrees 
that  "  the  time  referred  to  is  at  the  close  of  the 
creation  of  the  earth."  And  as  this  celebra- 
tion according  to  God  himself  is  at  the  laying 
of  that  corner-stone,  it  must  needs  be  a  top 
stone — a  corner-stone  at  the  summit — whose 
laying  completed  the  edifice  and  showed  the 
whole  work  in  finished  perfection.  But  for 
such  a  corner-stone  at  the  summit  there  is  no 
place  in  any  then  known  form  of  building, 
save  only  the  Pyramid,  of  which  it  is  charac- 
teristic. 

Nor  is  it  only  to  the  pyramidal  form  in 
general  that  the  allusion  is,  but  to  a  particular 
pyramid.  By  that  strange  reference  to  the 
sunken  feet  or  planting  of  the  foundations  in 
u  sockets,"  we  are  conducted  directly  to  the 
Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh.  Two  socketed  "  en- 
castrements,"  "  socles,"  shoes,  or  incised  sinkings 

it?"  If  a  base  corner-stone  were  in  contemplation  it  would  be 
in  place  to  speak  of  the  placing  of  the  building  upon  it ;  but 
only  a  top  or  summit  corner-stone  can  be  said  to  be  laid 
"  upon  "  the  building,  and  no  building  has  such  a  top  corner- 
stone but  the  Pyramid. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


117 


into  the  rock  were  found  under  two  of  its  base 
corners  by  the  French  savants  in  1799,  which 
were  again  uncovered  and  described  by  Colonel 
Howard  Vyse,  in  1837.  And  as  God  here 
speaks  of  such  a  fastening  down  of  the  foun- 
dations in  general,  Prof.  Smyth  was  persuaded 
that  there  were  corresponding  "  sockets "  at 
the  other  two  base  corners,  and  when  search 
was  made  for  them  in  ]  865,  they  were  found 
by  Messrs.  Aiton  and  Inglis,  assisted  by  Prof. 
Smyth.  Here  then  are  the  whole  four  "sock- 
ets "  or  fastened  foundations.  Nothing  of 
the  sort  exists  at  any  other  known  pyramid. 
They  are  among  the  distinctive  marks  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh.  They  are  the  en- 
during tracks  of  its  feet  cut  into  the  living 
rock,  by  which  Almighty  God  himself  identi- 
fies it  for  us  as  the  original  image  from  which 
his  own  description  of  the  creation  is  drawn. 
Men  may  treat  the  matter  as  they  will,  but 
here  are  the  facts  showing  a  Divine  recogni- 
tion of  this  particular  edifice  as  the  special 
symbol  of  the  earth's  formation  ! 

And  from  the  same  passage  we  also  get 
some  important  rays  of  Divine  light  with  re- 
gard to  the  builders  of  this  pillar  and  their 
estimate  of  it. 

The  singers  and  shouters  at  the  completion 


118 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  the  earth's  creation  of  course  were  heavenly 
intelligences,  as  most  expositors  agree  in  teach- 
ing. But  as  the  laying  of  the  capstone  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  is  divinely  given  as  the  sym- 
bol of  the  laying  of  the  capstone  in  the  fabric 
of  our  world,  the  singers  and  their  rejoicings 
so  sublimely  referred  to  in  the  one  case  must 
also  have  had  place  in  the  other. 

It  is  never  to  be  overlooked  that  there  are 
earthly  "  morning  stars  "  and  "  sons  of  God  " 
as  well  as  heavenly  ones.  "  As  many  as  are 
led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  the  sons  of 
God."  There  were  such  "  sons  of  God  "  on 
earth  before  the  flood.  Adam  was  one  of  them, 
and  his  immediate  descendants  in  the  line  of 
Seth  were  others.  Many  of  them  apostatized, 
but  some  remained  faithful.  Noah  was  one  of 
those  faithful  ones,  and  he  was  brought  over 
the  great  water  bearing  with  him  all  the  sacred 
rites,  traditions,  and  revelations  of  his  holy 
fathers.  By  him  the  newly  baptized  world 
began  once  more.  From  his  coming  out  of 
the  ark  to  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
the  call  of  Abraham,  and  the  commission  of 
Moses,  was  really  the  morning  time  of  our  pres- 
ent world.  Like  other  mornings  it  had  its 
noble  "  stars  "  and  "  sons  of  God  "  who  shone 
with  patriarchal  faithfulness  and  glorious  tes- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE.  119 

tirnony  in  their  time.  Shem  and  numbers  of 
his  seed  at  least  were  of  this  class.  Job,  and 
Melchisedec,  and  Abraham  were  pre-eminent 
among  them.  Jehovah  has  always  had  a  peo- 
ple of  his  own  among  men,  a  people  who  re- 
flected his  mind  and  will,  preserved  his  reve- 
lations, obeyed  his  commands,  and  kept  to  the 
pure  worship  of  his  name.  Even  long  after 
the  call  of  Abraham  there  was  yet  a  true 
"  priest  of  the  Most  High  God  "  in  Palestine, 
and  another  in  Midian,  and  inspired  Gentile 
prophets  as  late  as  the  days  of  Moses  and 
Aaron.  These  were  God's  "  sons  "  by  faith  in 
him  and  "  stars  "  of  light  amid  the  darkness 
of  those  early  times — noble  harbingers  of  the 
coming  day. 

Such  "  morning  stars  "  and  "  sons  of  God  " 
were  on  the  earth  when  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  built,  corresponding  to  those  in  heaven 
when  the  earth  was  made.  And  as  the  one 
structure  is  the  symbol  of  the  other,  even  to 
its  most  hidden  mysteries  and  measures,  the 
analogy  would  be  singularly  incomplete  in  one 
of  the  most  significant  features  of  the  divinely 
drawn  parallel  if  the  singing  and  shouting  did 
not  occur  in  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

But  if  these  early  light-bearers  and  children 
of  God  on  earth  sung  and  shouted  at  the  lay- 


120 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ing  of  the  capstone  of  the  Great  Pyramid  as 
the  heavenly  hosts  sung  and  shouted  when  the 
fabric  of  the  world  was  completed,  they  must 
needs  have  understood  it  and  been  in  deepest 
sympathy  with  it.  It  must  have  been  identic 
fled  with  their  most  sacred  thoughts  and  con- 
templations. It  must  have  been  of  a  character 
in  full  and  glorious  accord  with  what  distin- 
guished them  from  other  people  and  made  them 
"  stars  "  and  "  sons  of  God."  It  must  have 
been  something  most  profoundly  related  to 
Jehovah  and  the  holy  treasures  of  his  ancient 
revelations  and  promises,  and  hence  not  a  mere 
obtrusive  tomb  got  up  by  some  proud,  oppres- 
sive, and  beast-worshipping  worldly  tyrant. 

From  the  Book  of  God  itself  we  thus  legiti- 
mately gather  that  the  Great  Pyramid  did  not 
originate  with  idolatrous  Egypt ;  that  it  con- 
nects with  the  most  precious  things  of  those 
"  sons  of  God  "  who  shone  as  lights  in  the  dim 
morning  of  the  world's  history  ;  that  it  was 
the  subject  of  their  devoutest  joy  and  grati- 
tude ;  and  that  in  their  esteem  it  was  every- 
thing which  it  is  now  supposed  to  be. 

The  Pyramid  and  Christ. 

But  then  we  would  expect  it  also  to  refer  to 
Christ  and  redemption.    The  great  subject  of 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


121 


all  sacred  Revelation  is  the  Christ  and  his  glori- 
ous kingdom,  and  we  can  hardly  suppose  this 
pillar  Divine  if  it  has  not  something  on  this 
point.  Men  may  well  sneer  at  the  idea  of  a 
special  revelation  to  old  Cheops  or  his  archi- 
tects to  teach  the  diameter,  density,  and  tem- 
perature of  the  earth.  Something  of  mightier 
moment  to  mankind  must  be  involved  when 
Jehovah  thus  interposes.  Such  claims  need 
to  be  tried  by  the  pre-eminent  theme  of  all 
inspiration.  But  even  on  this  high  ground  the 
Great  Pyramid  sustains  itself  full  as  grandly 
as  in  the  sphere  of  cosmic  facts  and  geodetic 
measures. 

When  Zerubbabel  and  Jeshua  were  engaged 
rebuilding  Jerusalem  and  the  Temple  on  the 
return  from  the  great  captivity,  they  had  in 
hand  a  work  of  extraordinary  greatness,  diffi- 
culty, and  discouragements.  So  important  was 
it  in  itself,  and  so  bound  up  in  history  and 
type  with  another  and  greater  restoration,  that 
it  was  made  the  occasion  and  subject  of  special 
Divine  communication  through  Zechariah  the 
prophet.  And  in  those  prophecies  that  work 
and  all  that  it  typified  is  set  forth  under  the 
image  of  the  building  of  the  Pyramid.  A 
"  great  mountain  "  of  worldly  power  and  diffi- 
culty was  in  the  way,  but  God  said  it  should 


122 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


become  "  a  plain  before  Zerubbabel,"  as  the 
Gizeh  hill  was  levelled  to  receive  the  Great 
Pyramid.  As  despite  all  hindrances  the  Pyra- 
mid was  successfully  carried  forward  to  com- 
pletion, even  to  the  laying  of  the  peculiar 
corner-stone  of  its  apex  amid  the  songs  of 
"the  morning  stars"  and  the  shouts  of  "all 
the  sons  of  God,"  so  was  Zerubbabel  and  he 
whom  Zerubbabel  typified  to  succeed  in  their 
Divine  work,  even  to  the  u  bringing  forth  of 
the  headstone  thereof  with  shoutings,  crying, 
1  Grace,  Grace  unto  it."'  (Zech.  4  :  6,  7.)  The 
pyramid  idea  is  absolutely  essential  to  an  in- 
telligible and  consistent  interpretation  of  this 
imagery.  The  picture  is  an  exact  parallel  to 
the  one  in  Job,  only  transferred  from  nature 
to  grace, — from  geologic  to  Messianic  territory. 

By  necessary  implications  of  Holy  Scripture 
then  the  Great  Pyramid  is  immutably  linked 
with  the  building  of  the  Church  of  which  the 
adorable  Jesus  is  "  the  headstone,"  "  the  chief 
corner-stone." 

It  is  also  a  clear  and  outstanding  fact  that 
the  Scriptures  continually  make  the  pyramid 
capstone  the  type  and  symbol  of  Christ,  both 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New.  Who 
needs  to  be  reminded  with  what  brilliant  dic- 
tion Moses  likens  Jehovah  to  a  rock,  and  how 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


123 


triumphantly  he  asserts  against  all  the  heathen 
world,  that  "  their  rock  is  not  as  our  rock, 
even  our  enemies  themselves  being  judges  !" 
Out  of  the  very  spirit  as  well  as  letter  of  the 
Holy  Book  every  Christian  congregation  using 
the  English  tongue,  often  lifts  up  its  voice  to 
Jesus,  singing 

Eock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee ! 

He  is  not  only  such  a  rock  as  that  which 
yielded  thirsty  Israel  drink,  or  as  that  which 
gives  the  weary  traveller  shelter  from  the 
scorching  sunshine  or  beating  storm,  or  as 
that  which  the  prudent  builder  seeks  whereon 
to  found  his  house  securely,  but  especially 
such  a  rock  as  that  which  forms  the  apex  of 
the  Pyramid — a  rock  which  is  the  head  and 
crown  of  all  the  works  of  Providence  and 
grace — the  unique  bond  in  which  the  whole 
edifice  of  time  is  united — the  headstone  of 
redemption  lifted  high  above  all  other  rocks, 
"  that  in  all  things  he  might  have  the  pre- 
eminence." So  David  conceived  of  him  when 
he  sung,  u  The  stone  which  the  builders  re- 
fused is  become  the  headstone  of  the  corner," 
or  "  the  head  corner-stone,"  as  the  Septuagint 
renders  it.    (Ps.  118  :  22.)    So  Peter  being 


124 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


"  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,"  conceived  of 
him  when  he  said  to  the  Jews  who  had  con- 
demned and  crucified  him,  "  This  is  the  stone 
which  was  set  at  naught  by  you  builders 
which  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner." 
(Acts  4  :  11.)  Hence,  also,  he  wrote  to  his 
scattered  brethren  in  the  faith  as  having  come 
to  Jesus,  "as  unto  a  living  stone  disallowed 
indeed  of  men,  but  chosen  of  God,  and  pre^ 
cious,"  in  whom  they  also  "  as  lively  stones 
were  built  up  a  spiritual  house,"  according  to 
the  saying  of  God,  "  Behold  I  lay  in  Zion  a 
chief  corner-stone,  elect,  precious,"  even  "  the 
stone  which  the  builders  disallowed,"  but 
which  now  "  is  made  the  head  of  the  corner, 
and  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of 
offence  even  to  them  which  stumble  at  the 
word."  (1  Pet.  2  :  4-8.)  So  Paul  conceived 
of  him  when  he  wrote  to  the  Ephesians,  "  Ye 
are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles 
and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the 
chief  corner-stone,  in  whom  all  the  building 
fitly  framed  together  groweth  unto  an  holy 
temple  in  the  Lord,  in  whom  ye  also  are 
builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God 
through  the  spirit."  (Eph.  2  :  20-22.)  And 
the  same  conception  Jesus  applied  to  himself 
when  he  said,  "  Did  ye  never  read  in  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


125 


Scriptures,  the  stone  which  the  builders  re- 
jected the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the 
corner?  And  whosoever  shall  fall  on  this 
stone  shall  be  broken,  but  on  whomsoever  it 
shall  fall  it  will  grind  him  to  powder."  (Matt. 
21  :  42-44.) 

All  these  are  great  central  passages  of  the 
Divine  word,  and  not  one  of  them  will  inter- 
pret without  the  Pyramid,  whose  light  alone 
brings  out  their  full  significance  and  beauty. 
It  is  absurd  enough  when  men  speak  of  a 
river's  head  at  one  end  of  it,  and  its  mouth  at 
the  other  end  ;  but  it  is  unbearable  to  repre- 
sent the  Holy  Ghost  treating  of  the  head  of  a 
thing  as  in  its  toes.  Interpreters  may  put 
such  absurdities  in  the  Bible,  but  its  author 
never  does.  The  head  is  not  the  foot  nor  the 
foot  the  head  in  any  consistent  or  intelligible 
use  of  language.  So  the  head  corner-stone 
cannot  be  the  foot  or  foundation  corner-stone. 
Where  there  are  four  alike,  to  regard  one  as 
chief  is  a  mere  conventionalism  without  real- 
ity in  fact,  and  such  as  the  Bible  never  em- 
ploys. Common  architecture  furnishes  no  one 
pre-eminent  corner  or  corner-stone.  There  is 
no  head  corner  without  the  Pyramid.  That 
alone  has  such  a  head  at  the  head,  or  a  corner- 
stone uniquely  and  indisputably  the  chief.  It 


126 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


has  the  usual  four  at  the  base,  alike  in  shape, 
place  and  office,  but  it  has  a  fifth,  different 
from  all  others  and  far  more  exalted.  It  is  at 
the  top.  and  properly  the  head  one.  It  is  the 
last  to  come  into  place  and  so  may  be  long 
rejected  while  the  building  still  goes  on.  The 
base  corner-stones  must  be  laid  at  the  begin- 
ning. Work  cannot  proceed  while  either  of 
them  is  disallowed.  They  are  also  of  such 
regular  shape  as  renders  them  capable  of  being 
worked  in  as  well  at  one  place  as  at  another. 
They  furnish  no  occasion  to  be  disallowed. 
Not  so  the  head  corner-stone.  The  shape  of 
that  is  altogether  peculiar.  It  is  five-sided 
and  five-pointed.  From  foundation  to  summit 
there  is  no  place  at  which  it  will  fit  till  every- 
thing else  is  finished  and  its  own  proper  place 
is  reached.  Till  then  it  is  naturally  enough 
rejected  by  the  builders.  They  have  no  place 
for  it.  To  those  ignorant  of  its  purpose  it  is 
only  in  the  way — "  a  rock  of  offence  and  a 
stone  of  stumbling."  With  one  sharp  point 
always  sticking  upwards,  any  one  falling  on  it 
would  necessarily  "  be  broken."  And  when 
on  its  way  to  its  position  hundreds  of  feet  in 
the  air  were  it  to  fall  on  any  one  it  would  cer- 
tainly u  grind  him  to  powder." 

But  though  rejected  to  the  last,  it  finally 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


127 


turns  out  to  be  the  very  thing  required,  and 
reaches  a  place  to  which  it  alone  fits ;  a  place 
above  all  others,  where  it  sublimely  finishes 
out  and  binds  together  everything  in  one 
glorious  whole.  It  is  itself  a  perfect  pyramid, 
the  original  model  of  the  edifice  which  it  com- 
pletes and  adorns.  It  is  emphatically  the  head 
stone  of  the  head  corner.  It  is  at  the  head 
and  not  at  the  feet.  It  has  its  own  peculiar 
angles  and  they  are  the  angles  of  the  entire 
structure.  There  is  but  one  stone  of  that 
shape  and  it  is  the  shape  of  the  pyramid  com- 
plete. It  is  the  stone  which  stands  toward 
Heaven  for  every  other  in  the  building.  Every 
other  stone  in  all  the  mighty  construction 
stands  in  it,  and  has  place  with  reference  to  it, 
and  is  touched  by  its  weight  and  influence,  as 
well  as  sheltered  under  its  lines,  and  honored 
and  perfected  by  its  presence.  It  is  indeed 
the  "  all  in  all "  of  the  whole  edifice.  To  its 
angles  is  "  all  the  building  fitly  framed  to- 
gether." And  in  it  every  part  and  particle  that 
belongs  to  the  structure  from  foundation  to 
capstone  has  its  bond  of  perfectness,  its  shelter, 
and  its  crown. 

About  such  imagery  there  should  be  no 
question.  In  all  the  richness  of  the  Scrip- 
tures there  is  not  a  more  luminous,  expressive, 


128 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  comprehensive  picture  of  the  Christ,  in 
himself,  in  his  experiences,  in  his  relations  to 
his  friends  or  foes,  in  his  office  and  place  in  all 
the  dispensations  of  God  toward  our  race,  than 
that  which  is  given  in  these  texts  when  studied 
in  the  light  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  These 
passages  alone  consecrate  and  sanctify  it  for- 
ever. In  them  the  Holy  Ghost  takes  hold  of 
it,  traces  in  it  a  sacred  significance,  and  assigns 
to  it  relations  and  connections,  the  truth  and 
beauty  of  which  cannot  be  disputed.  And 
thus  by  the  highest  authority  known  to  man 
it  is  rendered  impossible  to  be  thoroughly  true 
to  the  utterances  of  inspiration,  and  yet  regard 
this  venerable  monument  as  nothing  but  the 
profane  tomb  of  a  pagan  despot. 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Christian  Dispensation. 

And  this  sublime  testimony  to  the  Great 
Pyramid  from  without  is  also  fully  sustained 
by  its  own  testimony  from  within.  We  have 
seen  in  a  former  lecture  how  grandly  it  symbol- 
izes the  truths  of  nature.  Let  us  glance  now 
at  its  symbolizations  of  Grace. 

Prof.  Smyth  relates  that  in  the  course  of  the 
summer  of  1872,  Mr.  Charles  Casey,  of  Pol- 
lerton  Castle,  Carlow,  wrote  him  that  while  he 
had  followed  and  adopted  all  the  explanations 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


129 


as  to  the  metrology  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
being  of  more  than  human  scientific  perfection 
for  the  age  in  which  it  was  produced, — yet  to 
call  it  therefore  divinely  inspired  or  "  sacred  " 
seemed  to  him  to  be  either  too  much  or  too 
little.  "  Now,  said  Mr.  Casey,  unless  the 
Great  Pyramid  can  be  shown  to  be  Messianic 
as  well  as  fraught  with  superhuman  science 
and  design,  its  6  sacred  '  claim  is  a  thing  with 
no  blood  in  it, — nothing  but  mere  sounding 
brass."  Nor  was  this  an  unreasonable  test. 
And  it  is  one  which  I  am  happy  to  say  the 
Great  Pyramid  very  nobly  stands. 

The  first  to  break  ground  in  this  department 
was  Robert  Menzies,  a  young  shipbuilder  and 
draughtsman,  of  Leith,  Scotland,  a  Christian 
Israelite  who  never  saw  the  Great  Pyramid, 
but  had  long  been  engaged  in  the  devout  study 
of  the  works  which  describe  it.  In  1865  he 
wrote  to  Prof.  Smyth  that  the  immense  su- 
periority of  the  height  and  finish  of  the  Grand 
Gallery  over  every  other  passage  is  owing  to 
the  fact  that  it  represents  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation, while  the  other  passages  symbolize 
only  human  histories  or  preparatory  dispensa- 
tions. He  also  had  good  reason  for  this  con- 
clusion, more  perhaps  than  he  knew. 

The  Christian  dispensation  by  common  con- 

9 


130 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


sent  dates  from  the  birth  of  Christ.  If  the 
Grand  Gallery  represents  it,  then  the  mark  for 
the  birth  of  Christ  is  the  commencement  of 
that  gallery.  The  unit  or  that  which  counts 
one  in  pyramid  measure  is  the  inch,  and  so  the 
inch,  as  in  the  diagonals  of  the  base,  symbol- 
izes the  grand  unit  of  time,  a  year,  at  least  in 
the  floorlines  of  the  passages  taken  as  scrolls 
of  history.  Measuring  thirty-three  inches 
then  from  the  beginning  of  the  Grand  Gallery 
for  the  duration  of  the  earthly  life  of  Christ, 
we  come  precisely  over  against  the  mouth  of 
that  mysterious  "  well "  with  its  ramp-stone 
cover  gone,  as  if  violently  forced  out  from 
beneath.  That  "  well  "  extends  irregularly 
down  through  the  masonry  and  rock  to  a  wide 
cavern,  and  thence  to  the  entrance  of  the 
bottomless  pit  itself.  It  is  a  striking  symbol 
of  death,  sealing  up  in  the  sepulchre,  descent 
into  hell,  and  triumphant  resurrection  in  ir- 
resistible power.  And  it  comes  at  a  place  to 
fit  precisely  to  the  death  and  resurrection  of 
our  blessed  Lord.  This  certainly  is  a  very 
strong  point  with  which  to  begin. 

The  Christian  dispensation  is  emphatically 
the  dispensation  of  new  life.  Its  pervading 
spirit  is  that  of  resurrection.  Basing  itself  on 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  as  its  great  sealing 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


131 


fact,  it  went  everywhere  in  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  awakening  men  oat  of  their  moral 
graves  and  calling  them  forth  in  a  new  birth, 
"  that  like  as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead 
by  the  glory  of  the  Father,  even  so  we  also 
should  walk  in  newness  of  life."  Most  intensely 
also  is  this  signified  throughout  the  whole 
length  of  the  Grand  Gallery  of  our  Pyramid. 
It  is  lined  along  its  base  on  both  sides  with 
ramp-stones  like  "  washboards  "  to  a  stairway. 
They  are  about  a  foot  high  and  wide,  and  they 
are  all  cut  with  miniature  symbolic  graves 
every  one  of  which  is  open.  More  than  this, 
right  by  the  side  of  each  of  these  open  graves 
is  a  neatly  cut  stone  set  vertically  in  the  wall. 
It  is  a  symbol  of  standing  upright,  and  almost 
audibly  proclaims  the  tenants  of  those  open 
graves  risen,  as  all  true  Christians  are,  not 
only  from  the  death  of  sin,  but  to  an  heirship 
of  a  still  completer  resurrection  through  him 
who  is  to  come  again.  There  are  eight  times 
seven  of  these  open  graves.  Eight  is  the 
number  of  new  life  and  resurrection,  and  seven 
of  dispensational  fulness,  so  that  by  their 
numbers  they  also  signify  this  newness  of  life. 
We  thus  have  one  of  the  intensest  and  most 
spiritual  features  of  the  Gospel  as  emphatically 
pronounced  as  stones  can  speak  it. 


132 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


The  Christian  dispensation  is  likewise  pic- 
tured in  the  Bible  as  made  up  of  seven  churches 
headed  by  "  seven  stars "  which  are  "  the 
angels  of  the  seven  churches."  So  the  best 
and  earliest  commentators  explain  that  first 
vision  of  the  Apocalypse,  which  allows  very 
little  room  for  differences  of  opinion.  And  a 
corresponding  symbol  of  the  same  is  contained 
in  this  Grand  Gallery.  It  stares  every  one  in 
the  face  the  moment  the  place  is  entered.  All 
writers  have  described  it  as  one  of  the  peculiar 
beauties  of  the  singular  arrangement.  Each 
side  of  the  wall  is  made  up  of  just  seven 
courses  of  finely  fitted  polished  stones,  the  one 
overlapping  the  other  and  extending  the  whole 
length  from  commencement  to  termination. 
It  is  the  gallery  of  the  seven  courses  just 
seven  times  the  height  of  the  other  passages. 
Besides,  this  gallery  has  special  relations  to 
the  Pleiades.  It  tells  in  several  ways  of  those 
benignant  and  exalted  stars.  In  its  own  way 
it  thus  also  points  to  the  "  seven  stars  "  as 
presiding  over  the  seven  churches. 

As  a  matter  of  historic  fact  the  Christian 
dispensation  followed  immediately  on  the  Jew- 
ish economy,  of  which  it  is  the  crown  and 
completion.  The  law  leads  the  way  to  Christ. 
This  historical  succession  is  also  carefully  pre- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


133 


served  in  the  symbolizations  of  our  Pyramid. 
The  first  upward  passage  which  leads  to  the 
Grand  Gallery  is  just  the  number  of  inches  in 
length  which  the  best  chrouologists  give  as  the 
number  of  years  from  the  Exodus  to  the  birth 
of  Christ.  It  is  the  way  to  the  Grand  Gallery 
as  the  Jewish  dispensation  is  the  way  to  the 
Christian. 

The  Christian  dispensation  also  has  a  fixed 
limit.  It  is  to  terminate  with  the  coming 
again  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead.  Every  commission  under  which 
we  now  act  extends  only  to  that  time.  And 
that  coming  of  Christ  to  end  this  age  is  every- 
where presented  as  impending, — as  a  thing 
which  might  occur  any  day.  All  this  is  like- 
wise symbolized  in  the  Grand  Gallery  of  the 
Great  Pyramid.  Its  termination  is  as  distinctly 
marked  as  its  beginning,  and  even  the  impend- 
ingness  of  the  end  is  not  overlooked.  Its 
south  or  further  wall  leans  a  full  degree  and 
overhangs  its  base  as  if  it  might  fall  at  any 
moment. 

From  my  studies  of  the  Apocalypse,  I  was 
led  to  publish  years  ago  my  firm  belief  that 
the  present  Church  period  is  to  be  succeeded 
by  a  dispensation  of  judgment  extending 
through  years  before  the  great  consummation 


134 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


is  reached.  And  here  we  have  it  most  evi« 
dently  symbolized  next  after  the  end  of  the 
Grand  Gallery.  There  the  passage  becomes 
low  again,  for  the  Church  as  such  has  ended  its 
career.  There  the  "granite  leaf" — a  great 
frowning  double  stone — hangs  in  its  grooves, 
beneath  which  every  one  that  passes  in  must 
bow,  exhibiting  a  most  impressive  picture  of 
"  the  great  tribulation "  of  the  judgment 
period.  There  also  are  the  rules  and  measures 
by  which  the  Pyramid  was  constructed,  all 
graven  on  the  stones,  indicative  of  the  com- 
plete righting  up  of  everything  according  to 
law  and  justice.  And  then  only  comes  the 
entrance  into  the  grand  and  polished  granite 
chamber  of  the  king. 

One  of  the  most  exalted  steps  in  the  history 
of  the  Church  is  that  which  was  accomplished 
during  the  first  quarter  of  our  present  century. 
It  was  in  the  first  twenty-five  years  since  1800 
that  Christendom  throughout  the  world  formed 
its  great  organizations  for  the  dissemination  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  for  the  publication  and 
general  diffusion  of  religious  literature  and 
Gospel  truth,  and  for  the  sending  out  and  sup- 
port of  missionaries  to  the  heathen,  to  plant 
the  Church  of  Jesus  in  all  lands  and  islands. 
It  was  in  those  years  that  the  Christian  world 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


135 


experienced  a  revival  of  aggressive  evangeliza- 
tion and  missionary  zeal,  the  greatest  and 
the  most  general  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
the  effects  of  which  continue  with  still  increas- 
ing power.  The  coming  into  activity  of  these 
organizations  with  their  results  was  so  marked 
an  advance  on  everything  of  the  kind  for  more 
than  twelve  hundred  years,  and  so  universal 
that  we  might  justly  expect  it  to  be  noted  in 
any  complete  prophetic  symbolization  of  our 
dispensation.  Accordingly  following  the  floor- 
line  of  the  Pyramid's  Grand  Gallery  towards 
its  upper  end  we  come  to  a  grand  step  three 
feet  high.  I  long  wondered  what  it  could 
mean,  as  it  is  the  only  one  in  the  whole  length 
of  the  glorious  passage  after  that  somewhat 
corresponding  rise  not  far  from  the  beginning. 
But  when  I  came  to  count  the  number  of 
inches  from  the  commencement  of  the  Grand 
Gallery  to  this  upper  step  the  mystery  was 
solved.  The  number  of  those  inches  is  close 
about  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fourteen, 
which  at  the  rate  of  an  inch  for  a  year  brings 
us  to  the  very  centre  of  those  years  in  which 
the  Church  universal  made  this  mighty,  and 
unexampled  stride.  Beyond  this  step  there 
is  no  further  ascent.  The  great  stone  which 
forms  it  is  also  the  weakest  and  most  frac- 


136 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


tured  and  dilapidated  of  all  the  stones  in  the 
whole  passage-way  of  the  Grand  Gallery.  It 
shows  a  marvellous  rise,  but  an  equally  mar- 
vellous absence  of  solidity  and  strength.  It 
is  the  image  of  brokenness,  feebleness,  and  the 
want  of  firm  texture.  It  seems  as  if  crum- 
bling away  under  the  feet  of  those  who  stand 
upon  it.  And  this  again  most  strikingly  ac- 
cords with  the  poor,  rent,  weak,  and  wasting 
character  of  the  Christianity  of  our  times, 
though  they  be  times  of  universal  evangeliza- 
tion. It  is  Christianity,  and  evinces  a  great 
rise  in  effort  and  aim  ;  but  it  is  a  very  shat- 
tered and  infirm  Christianity,  with  but  little 
solid  substance  left  and  incapable  of  enduring 
long. 

Thus  there  is  scarce  a  feature  of  our  dispen- 
sation from  the  birth  of  Christ  till  now,  or  that 
is  anywhere  foretold  of  its  end,  which  is  not 
symbolized  in  the  Grand  Gallery  of  the  Great 
Pyramid.  Man  in  all  his  ingenuity  is  incom- 
petent to  devise  a  simpler  and  completer  chart 
of  it,  were  he  to  labor  at  it  for  ages.  And 
yet  here  it  is  in  all  its  great  facts,  characteris- 
tics, and  relations,  in  its  beginning  and  end, 
in  its  constitution  and  history,  in  what  went 
before  and  in  what  comes  after,  built  into  an 
edifice  of  mighty  rocks  more  than  three  times 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


137 


seven  hundred  years  before  Christ  was  born. 
All  this  certainly  is  very  remarkable. 

Is  it  then  within  the  reason  of  man  to  say 
that  there  was  nothing  above  and  beyond  mere 
human  power  and  calculation  here, — no  potent 
presence  of  that  Mind  which  knows  the  end 
of  all  things  from  the  beginning,  and  giveth 
wisdom  unto  the  wise  ? 

The  Pyramid  and  Theology. 

Tested  also  by  the  more  inward  substance 
and  contents  of  sound  Scriptural  doctrine,  the 
facts  are  equally  remarkable  and  cogent. 

The  foundation  of  all  sacred  doctrines  is 
the  existence  of  a  personal  and  eternal  God, 
the  Almighty  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth. 
The  Bible  pronounces  that  man  a  "  fool  " — one 
criminally  self-stultified — who  can  find  it  in 
his  heart  to  say,  "there  is  no  God."  So  also 
the  Great  Pyramid  teaches.  It  symbolizes  the 
earth  and  all  the  universe  as  a  contrivance,  a 
work,  a  building,  shaped  to  Promethean  plan. 
It  must  therefore  have  had  a  contriver,  an  in- 
telligent and  potent  author,  greater  than  itself. 
It  thus  pronounces  at  one  and  the  same  time 
against  Atheism,  against  Sabaism,  against 
Pantheism,  and  against  all  idolatry  and  false 
worship.    It  knows  nothing  of  a  world  with- 


138 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


out  an  architect,  of  creaturehood  without  basis 
or  centre,  of  beauty  without  parent  or  birth- 
place, of  good  without  a  bosom  out  of  which  it 
flows,  of  thought  without  reason,  of  effect  with- 
out a  cause.  It  proclaims  the  universe  a  prod- 
uct, and  one  self-competent  God  as  its  author. 

It  is  an  essential  part  of  orthodox  theology 
that  Jehovah  is  a  three-one  God.  "  The  true 
Christian  faith  is  this,  that  we  worship  one 
God  in  Trinity,  and  Trinity  in  Unity,  neither 
confounding  the  persons  nor  dividing  the  sub- 
stance." And  when  we  ascribe  glory  to  the 
Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost, 
we  rightfully  add  "  as  it  was  in  the  beginning," 
for  so  is  the  representation  in  this  Pyramid 
before  the  Bible  was  written.  On  each  of  its 
four  faces  as  in  its  fundamental  figure  it  pre- 
sents to  every  beholder  the  geometric  emblem 
of  the  Trinity,  the  same  that  is  accepted  by 
the  Church  and  exhibited  in  nearly  every 
place  of  Christian  worship.  Creation  is  the 
reflection  of  God  himself,  and  the  Pyramid  as 
a  symbol  of  the  creation  gives  impressive  token 
of  His  mysterious  Tri-unity.  Nature  reflects 
Trinity,  and  this  symbol  of  nature  does  the 
sa;ne  with  a  depth  and  stress  which  cannot  be 
disputed.  Shaw  states  that  the  Deity  is  typi- 
fied by  the  outward  form  of  this  pile,  and  that 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


139 


form  is  a  triangle  whether  viewed  on  either 
side  or  from  either  corner. 

The  architect  of  the  world  this  monument 
likewise  proclaims  to  be  the  King  of  the  world, 
a  governing  and  upholding  Providence  as 
well  as  a  tri-personal  Creator.  Those  measures, 
motions,  interrelations,  and  vast  revolutions 
which  it  symbolizes,  all  tell  that  the  universe 
does  not  hold  God  but  that  thus  he  holds  and 
manages  the  universe.  They  are  the  grasp 
and  pressure  of  an  infinite  and  Almighty  hand, 
whose  fingers  clasp  the  crystal  poles  of  the  earth 
and  heavens,  and  under  whose  protecting  palm 
the  continents  and  seas,  planets,  suns,  and  sys- 
tems pass  with  unfaltering  steadiness  from  age 
to  age.  And  the  conformation  of  its  shape, 
measures,  avenues,  and  openings,  to  cosmic 
and  celestial  facts,  themselves  the  symbols  of 
an  eternal  Providence,  proclaims  the  potent 
presence  of  God  in  the  histories  as  well  as  in 
the  constitution  of  the  earth. 

But  the  Bible  tells  also  of  an  evil  power  in 
the  universe — an  anti-God — whom  it  describes 
as  an  apostate  angelic  being  who  has  obtained 
a  terrible  influence  over  the  affairs  and  destiny 
of  man.  He  is  called  the  Dragon,  the  old 
Serpent,  Satan,  the  Devil.  He  is  declared  to 
be  a  murderer,  a  tempter,  a  destroyer,  a  liar, 


140 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  author  of  all  evil,  under  whose  usurped 
dominion  mankind,  unhelped  of  God,  are 
hopelessly  in  thralled.  And  this  too  is  strik- 
ingly expressed  by  the  Great  Pyramid. 

From  the  earliest  known  times  different  por- 
tions of  the  heavens  have  been  designated, 
and  known  by  certain  figures  supposed  to  be 
outlined  by  the  stars  which  they  embrace. 
There  are  now  about  eighty  of  these  constella- 
tions. The  stars  of  which  they  are  composed 
the  Bible  declares  to  be  for  ''signs,"  as  well 
as  for  seasons,  days,  and  years.  The  proba- 
bility is  that  the  earlier  and  most  remarkable 
of  these  designations  were  made  by  God  him- 
self even  before  the  flood.  Joseph  us  attributes 
the  invention  of  the  constellations  to  the  fam- 
ily of  Seth,  the  son  of  Adam,  and  refers  to 
ancient  writers  as  authorities.  Origen  affirms 
that  it  was  asserted  in  the  Book  of  Enoch  that 
in  the  time  of  that  patriarch  the  constella- 
tions were  already  divided  and  named.*  Vol- 

*  The  Book  of  Enoch,  translated  by  Bishop  Lawrence,  is  as  a 
whole,  an  apocryphal  production,  dating  somewhere  about  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Herod,  before  Christ.  It  has  some 
ten  chapters  devoted  to  the  mysteries  of  astronomy,  the  heav- 
enly bodies,  and  their  relations  and  revolutions.  It  will  at 
least  serve  to  show  what  was  the  feeling  on  the  part  of  those 
whom  the  writer  represents  when  he  says  that  all  these  things 
were  made  known  to  Enoch  by  Uriel,  the  holy  angel,  who  gave 
"  the  whole  account  of  them  according  to  every  year  of  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


141 


uey  informs  us  that  everywhere  in  antiquity 
there  was  a  cherished  tradition  of  an  expected 
conqueror  of  the  serpent,  and  asserts  that  this 
tradition  is  reflected  in  the  constellations  as 
well  as  in  all  the  heathen  mythologies.  Du- 
puis,  also,  and  others  of  his  school  have  col- 
lected ancient  authorities  abundantly  proving 
that  in  all  nations  this  tradition  always  pre- 
vailed, and  that  the  same  is  represented  in  the 
constellations.  Indeed,  antiquity  with  one 
voice  declares  for  their  very  early  origin,  and 
the  results  of  modern  investigations  by  astron- 
omers themselves  confirm  the  traditions  and 
reveal  internal  evidence  of  their  having  been 
constructed  more  than  five  thousand  years 
ago.  Cassini  commences  his  History  of  As- 
tronomy by  saying,  u  It  is  impossible  to  doubt 
that  astronomy  was  invented  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world ;  history  profane  as  well  as 
sacred  testifies  to  this  truth."  Bailly  and 
others  assert  that  astronomy  must  have  been 
established  when  the  summer  solstice  was  in 
the  first  degree  of  Virgo,  and  that  the  solar 
and  lunar  zodiacs  were  of  a  similar  antiquity, 

world  forever,  until  a  new  work  (or  creation)  shall  be  effected 
which  will  be  eternal."    The  twelve  signs  of  the  Zodiac  are 
plainly  indicated  in  this  book.    See  Book  of  Enoch,  chap.  71, 
pp.  84,  85,  and  232. 


142 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


which  would  be  about  four  thousand  yeara 
before  the  Christian  era.  They  suppose  the 
originators  to  have  lived  in  about  the  fortieth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  and  to  have  been  a 
highly  civilized  people.  Prof.  Proctor,  by  cal- 
culations based  on  Hindoo  and  other  astron- 
omies, traces  the  authors  of  this  science  to 
some  people  residing  between  the  rivers  Cyrus 
and  Araxas,  not  very  far  from  Mount  Ararat, 
at  a  date  perhaps  two  thousand  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ.  Sir  William  Drummond 
says,  "  The  fact  is  certain  that  at  some  remote 
period  there  were  mathematicians  and  astron- 
omers who  knew  that  the  sun  is  the  centre  of 
our  system,  and  that  the  earth  itself  a  planet 
revolves  around  it."  The  constellations  were 
certainly  known  in  the  time  of  Job,  and  are 
familiarly  referred  to  in  that  very  ancient 
book.  Seyffarth  says  they  are  as  old  as  the 
human  race.  The  author  of  Mazzaroth  makes 
the  origin  of  the  constellations  antediluvian, 
and  thinks  they  were  framed  by  inspiration 
for  sacred  and  prophetic  purposes.  There  are 
actual  astronomical  calculations  in  existence 
with  calendars  formed  upon  them,  which  emi- 
nent astronomers  of  England  and  France 
admit  to  be  genuine  and  true,  and  which  carry 
back  the  antiquity  of  this  science  together 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


143 


with  the  constellations  to  within  a  few  years  of 
the  deluge,  even  on  the  longer  chronology  of 
the  Septuagint.  Sir  John  Herschel  finds  much 
fault  with  these  old  constellations  as  barbarous 
and  unscientific.  He  would  have  these  con- 
torted snakes,  miscalled  bears,  lions,  fishes, 
and  the  like,  banished  from  our  astronomies 
as  too  oppressive  to  the  student's  memory. 
But  the  author  of  Mazzaroth  very  well  suggests 
that  this  learned  astronomer  perhaps  never 
came  across  the  proper  meaning  of  these  gro- 
tesque figures  or  never  duly  studied  them  as 
symbols,  or  he  would  have  been  less  anxious 
for  their  obliteration.  Nay,  the  specimens 
which  modern  astronomers  have  given  of  their 
skill  at  such  reforms  do  not  much  recommend 
the  giving  of  free  scope  to  them  in  this  par- 
ticular. The  universality  of  these  ancient 
groupings  must  ever  secure  their  retention, 
however  disliked  by  scientists.  And  the  very 
inconvenience  of  them  for  naked  astronomical 
purposes  is  proof  not  of  the  barbarism  of  their 
inventors,  but  that  they  were  meant  to  serve 
some  further  end.  The  most  important  his- 
torical, theological,  and  prophetic  truths  have 
been  inscribed  on  the  heavens  by  means  of 
them,  so  that  they  need  only  to  be  stripped  of 
the  changes,  caricatures,  and  interpolations  of 


144 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE.^ 


the  heathen  Greeks  and  modern  scientists  in 
order  to  show  us  the  outlines  of  the  Bible  on 
the  sky,  and  to  prove  that  in  a  high,  evangelic, 
and  most  impressive  sense  "  the  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God."  The  author  of  Maz- 
zaroth  and  others  have  not  only  said  but 
shown  that  we  have  in  these  ancient  constel- 
lations a  medium  of  communication  with  the 
mind,  theology,  and  hopes  of  primitive  man, 
and  that  we  here  may  read  the  fact  that  God 
has  spoken  to  our  race,  given  to  it  a  Revelation 
from  the  beginning,  and  embodied  in  it  pre- 
cisely the  same  great  truths  afterwards  written 
and  developed  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  Every- 
where do  we  encounter  the  traditions  of  Abra- 
ham's skill  in  the  knowledge  of  the  heavens, 
how  he  argued  from  his  observations  of  the 
heavenly  orbs,  and  how  he  occupied  himself 
in  Egypt  teaching  the  priests  of  Heliopolis  in 
the  lore  of  the  skies.  Doubtless  this  was  not 
the  naked  science  of  astronomy  as  the  schools 
conceive  of  it,  but  as  respected  the  theological 
and  Messianic  truths  symbolized  in  these  celes- 
tial hieroglyphics,  in  which,  as  in  the  more 
literal  promises,  he  rejoiced  to  see  Christ's  day, 
and  saw  it  and  was  glad.  (John  8  :  56.) 
Well,  therefore,  has  it  been  that  these  ancient 
"  signs  "  have  been  preserved.    And  mankind 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


145 


have  reason  to  pray  that  no  hand  of  intermed- 
dling science  may  ever  sweep  them  down,  but 
that  they  may  continue  to  stand  unto  the  end 
in  all  the  almanacs  of  time. 

One  of  the  oldest  and  most  universal  of 
these  ancient  constellations  is  the  Dragon  or 
Great  Serpent.  The  chief  star  embraced  in 
that  group  (a  Draconis)  is  situated  in  the 
monster's  tail.  And  to  that  star  the  entrance 
passage  of  the  Great  Pyramid  was  levelled,  so 
that  a  Draconis  at  its  lower  culmination  then 
looked  right  down  that  inclined  tube  to  the 
bottomless  pit.  Mankind  marching  down  that 
passage  would  therefore  be  moving  under  the 
sign  and  dominion  of  the  Dragon.  Thus  in 
a  manner  which  startles  by  its  vividness  the 
Great  Pyramid  answers  to  the  Bible  in  saying 
that  there  is  a  Devil,  who  has  somehow  ob- 
tained an  awful  potency  over  the  human  race, 
and  that  mankind  under  him  are  on  the  wa}7 
to  the  pit  of  destruction.  The  picture  is  that 
of  a  tube  over  which  the  Dragon  presides, 
whose  incline  is  fearfully  downwards,  and 
which  terminates  in  hell!  Could  the  story  be 
told  in  simpler  or  more  graphic  terms  ? 

Some  laugh  at  the  idea  of  a  hell.  Even 
whole  denominations  calling  themselves  Chris- 
tians make  it  a  point  of  faith  to  deny  the 

10 


146 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


existence  of  any  such  thing.  But  the  Bible 
tells  about  it  as  a  dark  and  mysterious  under- 
world— a  bottomless  pit — a  subterranean  region 
of  hopeless  misery, — out  of  which  there  is  no 
escape.  And  here  is  the  symbol  of  it  in  the 
Great  Pyramid — a  room  far  under  the  centre 
of  the  edifice,  one  hundred  feet  down  in  the 
solid  rock,  having  neither  bottom  nor  outlet. 
It  has  continuity  in  a  tube  on  the  further  side, 
but  it  is  endless,  the  same  as  the  pit  is  bot- 
tomless. With  singular  significance  has  this 
feature  been  copied  in  all  other  pyramids,  to 
whose  hopeless  subterranean  chambers  the 
kings  of  idolatrous  and  self-justifying  Egypt 
were  consigned.  Hence  the  words  of  Ezekiel 
(31  :  14-18):  "  They  are  all  delivered  unto 
death,  to  the  nether  parts  of  the  earth,  in  the 
midst  of  the  children  of  men,  with  them  that 
go  down  to  the  pit.  .  .  This  is  Pharaoh  and 
all  his  multitude,  saith  the  Lord  God."  And 
in  the  facile  and  smooth  descent  of  that  main 
passage-way  leading  directly  down  to  the  pit 
we  have  the  symbol  of  the  tendency  and 
hopeless  destiny  of  man  since  his  fall  into 
Satan's  power,  except  as  recovered  by  some 
gracious  intervention  superior  to  nature  and 
mightier  than  the  Devil. 

But  the  glad  and  glorious  teaching  of  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


147 


Bible  is  that  God  has  interposed,  introduced  a 
new  and  saving  economy,  calling  Abraham, 
commissioning  and  inspiring  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  establishing  for  himself  a  consecrated 
people,  and  preparing  the  way  for  a  sublime 
Deliverer  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  brought 
forgiveness  and  eternal  life  into  the  world,  and 
arranged  for  a  new  and  eternal  dominion  of 
righteousness  and  peace,  which  is  to  dethrone 
Satan  and  bring  man  back  to  original  blessed- 
ness. This  is  the  very  soul  and  spirit  of  the 
Scriptures — the  master  theme  of  both  Testa- 
ments and  of  all  their  institutes.  And  the 
same  is  the  great  subject  of  all  the  chief  parts 
of  the  Great  Pyramid's  interior — the  burden 
of  its  noblest  passages — the  story  of  all  its 
upper  apartments. 

The  first  ascending  passage  begins  at  the 
point  which  answers  in  the  number  of  its  year- 
inches  to  the  date  of  the  Exodus  of  Israel.  It 
also  covers  by  its  length  the  precise  number 
of  inches  that  there  were  years  from  the  Exo- 
dus to  the  birth  of  Christ.  We  thus  identify 
it  as  the  Pyramid's  symbol  of  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation. That  dispensation  was  an  upward 
movement  in  human  history  founded  on  direct 
supernatural  interferences  of  the  Almighty, 
and  so  this  is  an  upward  passage  with  the 


148 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


same  angle  heavenward  as  that  of  the  entrance 
passage  is  hellward.  It  is  a  most  expressive 
symbol  of  a  special  and  effective  interposition 
of  God  to  raise  men  up  from  their  decline 
toward  destruction,  and  thus  furnishes  us  with 
a  monumental  testimony  to  the  whole  Scrip- 
tural representation  of  that  economy. 

But  the  Mosaic  dispensation  was  only  inter- 
mediate and  preliminary  to  something  greater 
and  higher.  Hence  that  upward  passage  sud- 
denly enlarges  into  a  far  more  magnificent  as- 
cending opening.  The  top  abruptly  rises  to 
seven  times  the  previous  height,  and  every- 
thing is  correspondingly  exalted  into  the 
Grand  Gallery.  This  is  the  symbol  of  the 
Christian  era — the  grandest  section  in  all  the 
scrolls  of  human  history.  It  begins  at  the 
inch  which  marks  the  Saviour's  birth.  Thirty- 
three  inches  from  that  beginning  bring  us  to 
the  startling  symbol  of  death,  burial,  descent 
into  hell,  and  resurrection  from  the  dead, — to 
that  fearful  "  well "  with  its  heavy  stone  cover- 
ing broken  out  by  an  upward  force  which  tore 
away  a  part  of  the  wall  itself,  "  for  it  was  not 
possible  that  he  should  be  holden  of  death." 
The  entire  length  is  covered  with  thirty-six 
overspanning  stones,  the  number  of  months 
of  Christ's  public  ministry.    And  beyond  is 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


149 


the  granite  King's  Chamber  in  which  all  con- 
summates. And  there  the  polished  walls, 
fine  materials,  grand  proportions,  and  exalted 
place,  eloquently  tell  of  glories  yet  to  come. 
It  is  the  chamber  of  fifties,  which  is  the  grand 
jubilee  number. 

Nay,  for  those  Gentiles  who  never  knew  of 
Israel's  worship  and  sacred  books  there  is  also 
a  word  of  hope  inserted.  They  are  not  neces- 
sarily all  lost.  From  the  lowest  depths  of 
Ethnic  apostasy  the  Great  Pyramid  still  indi- 
cates a  way  up  through  the  atoning  death  of 
Christ  to  the  celestial  blessedness.  It  is  a 
steep,  tortuous,  difficult,  dangerous,  and  un- 
certain way,  not  likely  to  be  found  and  safely 
traversed  by  many ;  but  it  is  there.  It  is  a 
speaking  symbol  of  what  the  inspired  Apostle 
declared  so  long  afterwards,  that  "  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh  right 
eousness  is  accepted  of  him,"  accepted  through 
the  mediation  of  Christ. 

Here  are  symbolizations  of  sacred  histories 
whose  warp  and  woof  is  miracle.  Here  are 
expressions  the  soul  of  which  is  the  same 
Divine  breath  which  animates  and  fills  the 
Testaments  of  God.  Here  are  heavenward 
pointings  and  indications  of  the  way  to  eternal 
life  as  distinct  and  gracious  as  those  which 


150 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


mark  the  holy  Evangely  itself.  It  is  the 
Gospel  pronounced  in  stone.  It  is  the  testi- 
mony of  "  Jesus  and  the  resurrection  "  put  up 
in  imperishable  rock.  It  is  redemption  me- 
morialized in  marble  more  than  twenty  cen- 
turies before  the  Christ  was  born  !  Could  it 
be  mere  accident  ?  Was  it  not  rather  the  dear 
God  above  us  laying  up  the  sublime  things 
of  his  grace  in  enduring  lithic  records  which 
man  could  not  alter  nor  time  destroy  to  de- 
monstrate to  the  skeptics  of  our  day  how  un- 
reasonable and  inexcusable  is  their  unbelief? 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

The  Bible  moreover  tells  of  a  nearing  day 
of  judgment — a  time  when  the  Almighty 
power  that  made  us  will  reckon  with  us  con- 
cerning these  earthly  lives  of  ours,  and  deal 
out  destiny  according  to  the  uses  we  have  made 
of  them.  In  all  its  addresses,  whether  didac- 
tic or  prophetic, — whether  to  warn  the  wicked 
or  comfort  the  pious, — whether  for  the  vindica- 
tion of  God  or  the  foreshadowing  of  what  is  to 
become  of  man, — the  Bible  everywhere  refers 
us  to  an  approaching  crisis,  when  the  principles 
of  eternal  justice  must  go  into  full  effect,  when 
the  trampled  law  will  inexorably  enforce  its 
supremacy,  when  everything  must  be  righted 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


151 


up,  and  all  that  is  adverse  to  truth  and  good 
be  forever  blasted ;  when  faith  and  virtue  shall 
be  rewarded  and  enthroned,  and  all  else  sink 
overwhelmed  by  a  majesty  which  nothing  can 
withstand.  It  is  described  as  a  time  of  sorrow 
and  unexampled  distress  for  the  unbelieving 
world — a  time  of  fears  and  plagues  and  great 
tribulation  to  all  but  God's  watching  and  ready 
ones,  to  whom  it  shall  be  a  day  of  glorious 
coronation  in  heaven.  Its  coming  is  spoken 
of  as  sudden — when  men  in  general  do  not 
expect  it — when  many  are  saying,  "  Peace  and 
safety."  Like  the  flood  upon  the  old  world — 
like  the  tempest  of  hail  and  fire  which  over- 
whelmed Sodom  and  Gomorrah — so  shall  it 
come  upon  the  nations.  When  men  think  not, 
the  Son  of  man  cometh.  And  all  this  too  is 
solemnly  pronounced  by  the  Great  Pyramid. 
That  Grand  Gallery  stops  abruptly.  It  is  sud- 
denly cut  off  in  its  continuity.  From  a  splen- 
did passage-way  twenty-eight  feet  in  height  it 
ceases  instantly,  and  the  further  passage  is  less 
than  four  feet.  The  floorline  then  no  longer 
ascends.  A  ponderous  double  block  of  frown- 
ing granite,  hard  and  invincible,  hangs  loose 
over  the  low  and  narrow  pass  now.  In  the 
same  antechamber  in  which  it  hangs,  the 
rules,  measures,  and  weights  appear  engraveu 


152 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


in  majesty  upon  the  imperishable  granite,  for 
every  one  to  pass  under.  The  tokens  are  that 
now  judgment  is  laid  to  the  line,  and  right- 
eousness to  the  plummet,  that  every  cover  may 
be  lifted,  and  every  refuge  of  lies  swept  away. 
Everything  here  indicates  the  inexorable  ad- 
judications of  eternal  righteousness. 

And  that  solemn  time  is  also  everywhere 
represented  as  now  close  at  hand.  As  far  as 
theologians  have  been  able  to  ascertain,  all  the 
prophetic  dates  are  about  run  out.  The  Scrip- 
tural signs  of  the  end  have  appeared.  Every 
method  of  computation  points  to  the  solemn 
conclusion  that  we  are  now  on  the  margin  of 
the  end  of  this  age  and  dispensation.  Nor 
does  the  Great  Pyramid  fail  to  tell  us  the  same 
thing.  Measuring  off  one  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred  and  seventy-seven  inches  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Grand  Gallery  for  the  one  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years  since 
the  birth  of  Christ,  there  remain  but  a  few 
inches  more  to  bring  us  to  its  end.  So  likewise 
when  we  go  forward  on  the  dial  of  the  preces- 
sional  cycle  to  observe  the  condition  of  the 
heavens  when  the  last  of  these  inches  is 
counted  off,  the  astronomical  indications  are 
correspondingly  remarkable.  The  Pleiades 
which  were  on  the  meridian  when  the  Pyra- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


153 


mid  was  built  are  then  far  to  the  east,  with  the 
vernal  equinox  at  the  same  time  precisely  the 
same  distance  from  that  meridian  to  the  west, 
whilst  the  distance  from  one  to  the  other 
measures  the  exact  age  of  the  Pyramid  at  that 
date.  At  the  same  time  a  Draconis  will  again 
be  on  the  meridian  below  the  pole,  but  then 
just  seven  times  lower  than  at  the  time  of  the 
Pyramid's  building.  This  final  downward- 
ness  of  seven  times  is  strikingly  suggestive  of 
the  Dragon's  complete  dethronement.  And 
what  is  still  more  remarkable,  whilst  a  Dra- 
conis is  on  the  meridian  at  this  low  point, 
Aries,  the  Ram,  appears  on  the  meridian 
above,  with  the  line  passing  exactly  through 
his  horns  !  A  more  vivid  astronomical  si°:n 
of  the  overthrow  of  Satan  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Prince  of  the  flock  of  God  it  is  not  pos- 
sible to  conceive.  It  is  as  if  the  very  heavens 
were  proclaiming  that  then  the  ever-living 
Lamb  takes  to  him  his  great  power,  and  enters 
upon  his  glorious  reign ! 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Jew. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many  earnest  believers 
in  the  Scriptures  that  God  is  not  yet  done  with 
the  Jews  as  a  distinct  and  peculiar  people.  As 
a  nation  they  rejected  Christ  and  fell  from 


154 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


their  high  pre-eminence,  and  are  now  on  pre- 
cisely the  same  footing  with  the  Gentiles  with 
regard  to  the  Christian  dispensation.  There 
is  no  way  of  salvation  nor  any  special  privi- 
leges for  them  now  other  than  the  Gospel 
offers  to  all  men  alike.  Through  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ  and  union  with  him,  there  is 
redemption  for  their  souls  the  same  as  others, 
but  in  no  other  way.  But  the  belief  of  many 
is  that  they  are  preserved  in  their  singular 
distinctness,  even  in  unbelief,  as  the  subject 
of  a  grand  restoration  and  conversion  when 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are  fulfilled,  and 
that  blindness  in  part  has  happened  unto  them, 
in  which  as  a  people  they  will  remain  till  the 
time  of  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  at  his 
second%coming.  And  to  this  belief  the  Great 
Pyramid  would  also  seem  to  answer  in  a  very 
marked  manner. 

A  special  national  token  of  the  Jew  is  the 
sabbatic  system.  It  was  given  of  God,  and 
made  to  pervade  the  whole  Jewish  economy 
as  a  thing  by  which  the  chosen  people  were  to 
be  distinguished  from  all  other  nations,  and  in 
the  observance  of  which  they  were  to  exhibit 
themselves  as  God's  people.  Disregard  of  this 
was  held  to  be  treason  to  their  King,  and  a 
forfeiture  of  all  their  rights  to  the  promises 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


155 


And  this  sabbatic  system  is  specially  charac- 
teristic of  the  so-called  Queen's  Chamber  and 
the  horizontal  passage  leading  to  it. 

They  reached  their  highest  point  when  of 
them  Christ  was  born.  The  same  unbelief  by 
which  they  then  were  broken  off  they  have 
ever  since  retained.  Hence  the  avenue  which 
I  take  as  a  symbol  of  their  history  from  Christ's 
time  is  horizontal,  except  that  the  last  seventh 
of  it  drops  lower  than  any  other  part.  If  the 
latter  chapters  of  Ezekiel  (from  the  thirty- 
sixth  onward)  and  many  other  passages  are  to 
be  literally  taken,  and  there  is  great  difficulty 
in  understanding  them  in  any  other  way,  there 
is  to  come  for  Israel  a  grander  restoration  than 
that  of  their  return  from  Babylon,  when  they 
will  be  re-established  in  holiness  according  to 
their  ancient  estate,  and  all  their  early  insti- 
tutes again  be  righted  up  and  put  into  full 
effect.  Hence  this  low  horizontal  passage  ter- 
minates in  a  grand  sabbatic  room  full  of  the 
most  important  notations  of  the  measures  and 
proportions  of  the  whole  Pyramid. 

Those  who  hold  to  this  restoration  of  the 
Jews  hold  also  that  they  will  be  returned  in 
their  present  unbelief  and  blindness  as  regards 
the  true  Messiah,  and  will  only  afterwards 
have  the  scales  removed  from  their  eyes  after 


156 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  manner  of  Paul,  who  in  this  respect  was 
as  one  born  before  the  time.  And  this  also 
would  seem  to  be  distinctly  set  forth.  Two 
ventilating  tubes  have  recently  been  discovered 
in  the  so-called  Queen's  Chamber,  which  the 
builders  left  entirely  closed  over  with  a  thin 
unbroken  scale,  which  not  only  shut  them  from 
all  observation  but  rendered  them  of  no  prac- 
tical effect  whatever.  The  room  has  therefore 
always  been  noted  for  its  foul  air  and  noisome 
smell,  for  the  atmosphere  there  was  left  with- 
out circulation  for  four  thousand  years.  These 
tubes  extended  inward  through  the  masonry 
and  into  the  stones  forming  the  walls  of  the 
room,  all  nicely  cut,  but  for  about  one  inch 
they  were  not  cut  through  into  the  room  itself. 
On  the  hidden  sides  of  the  walls  these  air- 
channels  were  open,  but  on  the  visible  sides 
within  the  room  the  surface  was  smooth,  even, 
and  unbroken,  the  same  as  any  other  part.  It 
was  only  by  something  of  an  accident  that 
these  scales  were  broken  and  the  channels 
opened  into  the  room  itself.  So  singular  an  ar- 
rangement could  have  none  other  than  a  sym- 
bolic intent.  No  architectural  reason  for  the 
peculiarity  can  at  all  be  traced.  And  most  strik- 
ingly would  it  serve  to  signify  the  blindness  of 
the  Jew.  and  his  deadness  in  unbelief,  needing 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE.  157 


only  the  breaking  away  of  those  scales  for  the 
free  breath  of  God  to  purify  every  thing  again. 
And  if  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  symbol,  it 
accords  precisely  with  the  idea  of  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  Jewish  nationality  before  the 
great  conversion,  and  that  this  breaking  away 
of  the  disabling  and  defiling  scales  of  blind- 
ness and  unbelief  remains  to  be  accomplished 
after  entrance  upon  the  state  symbolized  by 
this  room.  And  even  then  it  is  only  removed 
by  a  breakage  and  violence  entirely  distinct 
from  the  ordinary  course  of  things,  which 
would  also  be  fulfilled  in  case  the  general  con- 
version of  the  Jews  is  to  be  brought  about  after 
the  manner  of  that  type  of  it  exhibited  in 
Paul,  who  was  converted  as  no  other  man  ever 
has  been  by  the  personal  apocalypse  of  the 
Lord  Jesus. 

It  is  also  fully  agreed  by  those  who  hold  to 
the  belief  of  a  restoration  of  the  Jews,  that 
they  will  then  be  lifted  spiritually  far  above 
the  dead  level  which  has  characterized  them 
as  a  nation  since  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and 
that  quite  a  new,  higher,  and  holier  spirit  than 
they  ever  experienced  before  will  then  be 
breathed  into  their  ancient  ceremonial.  And 
the  same  would  seem  to  be  symbolized  in  this 
chamber.  It  has  no  proper  floor,  and  is  entered 


158 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


from  a  very  low  plane,  even  lower  than  the 
avenue  in  general.  But  inside  there  is  a  base- 
line marked  evenly  around  it  at  a  range  with 
the  square  top  of  the  entrance  passage,  indicat- 
ing a  grand  lifting  up  after  having  entered. 
It  is  in  the  relative  spaces  above  this  line  that 
the  sabbatism  and  exalted  proportions  and 
commensurations  of  the  apartment  appear. 

This  opens  an  entirely  new  field  in  pyramid 
interpretations,  which  calls  for  a  more  enlarged 
and  thorough  examination.  But  what  does 
that  horizontal  sabbatic  passage,  starting  from 
the  level  of  Christ's  death  and  dropping  lower 
in  the  last  seventh  of  its  floorline,  mean,  if 
not  the  Jew  who  has  risen  no  higher  since  the 
rejection  of  his  Messiah,  but  has  fallen  lower 
of  late  by  his  rationalism,  though  still  preserv- 
ing his  distinctness  from  all  other  peoples  ? 
What  can  that  remarkable,  separate,  sabbatic 
room  mean,  if  not  intended  to  set  forth  a 
separate  and  peculiar  earthly  destiny  of  the 
Jew  ?  And  what  can  that  grand  uplifting 
and  the  breaking  through  of  those  thin  stop- 
pages of  the  ventilation  signify,  if  not  the  re- 
quickening  by  the  Spirit  of  God  which  is 
promised  to  the  Jew  for  the  sake  of  his  fathers, 
when  once  he  shall  look  upon  him  whom  he 
has  pierced  ? 


# 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


159 


The  Pyramid  and  Heaven. 

The  crown  of  Christian  theology  and  hope 
is  the  doctrine  concerning  heaven,  the  resi- 
dence of  God  and  his  glorified  people.  When 
the  Saviour  left  the  earth,  he  said,  "  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you."  Abraham  looked 
for  a  permanent  city.  Paul  spoke  hopefully 
of  "  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  John  beheld 
and  wrote  of  "  that 'great  city,  the  holy  Jeru- 
salem," even  "Jerusalem  the  golden,"  of  which 
the  Church  ever  sings  with  such  fondness  and 
delight.  And  this  too  is  symbolized  in  the 
Great  Pyramid.  If  nothing  else,  the  granite 
chamber  in  which  the  dispensations  of  this 
world  terminate  may  serve  to  tell  of  it.  But 
that  chamber  seems  rather  to  relate  to  the 
consummated  earthly  than  to  the  heavenly. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  another  and 
superior  chamber  exists  in  the  mighty  edifice, 
more  fully  answering  to  the  celestial  city.  The 
sabbatic  chamber  is  on  the  twenty-fifth  course 
of  the  masonry,  and  the  granite  chamber  on 
the  fiftieth.  To  make  up  the  complete  count 
there  would  have  to  be  a  third  on  the  one 
hundredth  course,  corresponding  to  "  the  third 
heaven."    The  Apocalypse,  that  book  of  the 


160  A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 

consummations,  seems  also  to  call  for  such  a 
chamber.  As  "  the  seven  churches "  under 
"  the  seven  stars"  are  found  in  the  Grand  Gal- 
lery, and  the  judgment  dispensation  in  the 
ante-room  leading  to  the  granite  chamber,  and 
"  the  great  tribulation  "  in  the  granite  blocks 
which  hang  over  the  passage-way  through  that 
ante-room,  there  would  need  to  be  another  and 
higher  apartment  to  answer  to  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem,  which  the  Apocalypse  introduces 
as  the  crown  of  all.  The  piles  of  ancient  rub- 
bish from  the  building  of  this  pyramid  which 
cover  the  breast  of  the  hill  also  add  their 
indications  of  another  chamber  of  grander 
materials  than  the  others,  and  higher  up  in  the 
edifice.  After  a  rain  Prof.  Smyth  paced  about 
among  the  gutters  which  the  wash*  cut  into 
these  piles  of  chips  and  splinters  of  stone,  to 
see  what  he  could  find.  "  Towards  the  top  of 
the  heap  and  just  in  front  of,  though  at  a 
great  distance  from,  the  Pyramid's  entrance 
portal,"  he  found  "  frequent  splinters  and  frag- 
ments of  green  and  white  diorite"  This  is  a 
compact,  very  hard,  crypto-crystalline  forma- 
tion, whitish,  speckled  with  black  or  greenish- 
black.  It  is  the  material  of  which  the  cele- 
brated stone  statue  now  in  the  Boolak  Museum 
is  cut.    It  is  not  native  to  the  pyramid  region, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


161 


and  could  only  have  been  brought  there  from 
far,  whilst  the  number  of  these  spalls  and 
fragments  intermixed  with  the  earth  and  other 
chippings  and  offal  in  the  process  of  this 
pyramid's  building  would  indicate  some  ex- 
tensive use  of  that  excellent  material  in  this 
structure.  Their  occurrence  near  the  top  of 
the  furthest  distance  of  these  piles  from  the 
Pyramid  would  show  that  the  use  made  of  this 
rock  was  high  up  in  the  edifice  and  toward  its 
completion.  But  in  none  of  the  present  open- 
ings has  anything  been  found  made  of  diorite, 
or  anything  like  it.  Therefore,  Prof.  Smyth, 
in  debating  over  these  fragments, says,  "I  was 
compelled  to  gaze  up  at  the  Pyramid  with  its 
vast  bulk,  and  believe  that  there  is  another 
chamber  still  undiscovered  there,  and  one 
which  will  prove  to  be  the  very  muniment 
room  of  the  whole  monument."* 

And  even  the  way  to  it  may  perhaps  be 
found  from  a  suggestion  which  I  draw  from  the 
Apocalypse.  The  numberless  multitude  before 
the  throne  of  God  (chap.  7  : 9-17)  comes  66  out 
of  the  great  tribulation,"  and  if  those  granite 
blocks  suspended  over  the  way  through  the 
ante-room  to  the  King's  Chamber  denote  the 
great  tribulation,  as  they  so  expressively  do, 


*  Life  and  Work,  pp.  187,  188. 
11 


162 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  way  to  a  room  symbolic  of  heaven  would 
seem  to  be  directly  from  those  blocks,  just 
where  nobody  has  ever  searched  for  it. 
Those  blocks  hang  in  grooves,  and  have  a  boss 
or  knob  left  on  the  side  as  if  meant  to  be  slid 
up  for  a  purpose ;  and  the  vision  of  John 
would  seem  to  imply  that  the  lifting  of  them 
would  uncover  the  way  to  the  room  which 
would  be  the  symbol  of  glory.  A  light  bore 
with  a  rod  so  directed  as  to  strike  behind  those 
blocks  would  probably  reveal  whether  or  not 
there  is  such  a  passage  from  either  side  at  that 
point.  And  until  the  facts  are  ascertained  by 
adequate  examination,  I  am  inclined  to  believe, 
from  general  analogy  and  from  the  correspond- 
ence in  all  other  points  with  the  Bible,  and 
especially  with  the  Apocalyptic  outlines,  that 
behind  those  blocks  will  be  found  the  way  to 
another  and  superior  chamber,  situated  in  the 
upper  centre  of  the  building  on  the  one  hun- 
dredth course  of  the  masonry.  I  also  antici- 
pate that  when  it  is  discovered  it  will  present 
an  exact  square,  sixteen  pyramid  cubits  every 
way,  with  perhaps  three  distinct  entrances  on 
each  side,  and  answering  in  its  prophetic  read- 
ings to  the  twenty-first  chapter  of  the  Book  of 
the  Revelation.  Of  course  this  is  only  a  hy- 
pothesis, a  theoretic  persuasion  which  needs 


A.  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


163 


to  be  tested  by  further  explorations,  but  it 
rests  on  considerations  sufficiently  strong  to 
beget  in  me  the  belief  that  it  will  be  verified 
in  fact.  Hence  I  have  had  the  place  and  pro- 
portions of  such  a  room  indicated  on  the 
diagram. 

The  Pyramid  and  the  Spiritual  Universe. 

But  man  is  not  the  only  rational  creature 
God  has  made.  As  the  interval  below,  between 
him  and  nothing,  is  filled  up  with  uncounted 
orders  and  forms  of  being,  so  on  rational  as 
well  as  Scriptural  grounds  it  is  part  of  our 
common  faith  that  there  are  many  intellectual 
and  spiritual  orders  above,  between  him  and 
the  infinite  Creator.  These  rank  in  series  over 
series  of  angels  and  archangels,  seraphim  and 
cherubim,  principalities  and  powers.  And  as 
the  Pyramid  is  a  Scriptural  image  of  the 
Church,  so  it  is  also  of  this  whole  spiritual 
universe.  Galloway,  in  his  Egypt's  Record  of 
Time,  has  noted  that  "  the  ascending  scale  of 
natures  above  man  was  revealed  to  Jacob  in 
vision.  The  collective  nature  of  man  is,  as  it 
were,  at  the  basis  of  a  mighty  pyramid  of 
spiritual  natures  ascending  by  successive  stages 
to  one  glorious  apex,  from  which  the  whole 
derives  unity,  from  which  the  whole  has  pro- 


164  A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 

ceeded,  and  on  which  it  depends  for  existence. 
This  glorious  spiritual  pyramid  appears  to  be 
that  which  was  revealed  to  Jacob  at  Bethel, 
when  a  solitary  traveller  on  his  way  to  Padan 
Aram  :  a  mighty  ladder  or  scale  of  being  as- 
cending from  man  to  the  highest  heaven ;  a 
sublime  idea  of  the  spiritual  universe  proceed- 
ing from  one,  and  built  up  into  one  glorious 
head,  a  world  not  of  gross  and  dead  materials, 
but  of  living  spirit  and  flame,  full  of  the 
adoring  love  and  active  service  of  God,  at  the 
summit  of  which  the  presence  of  Jehovah  was 
beheld  revealed"  (pp.  339,  340).  And  this 
grand,  striking,  and  truthful  conception  of  the 
universe  bound  together  and  headed  up  in  One 
supreme  original  of  all,  we  have  here  in  ma- 
terial form,  consolidated  in  stone,  worthy  in 
some  measure  too  of  the  eternal  vastness  and 
magnificence  of  the  subject. 

Thus  then  the  Great  Pyramid  answers 
throughout  to  all  history  and  all  Revelation. 
The  substance  of  both  Testaments  and  all  the 
dispensations  of  God  toward  man  are  here 
traced  in  unchanging  rock,  more  than  five 
centuries  before  Moses.  How  came  these 
things  into  this  pile,  and  nowhere  else  on  earth 
but  in  the  Bible  ?  Whence  came  this  sublime 
science  before  the  days  of  science, — this  knowl- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


165 


edge  of  all  history  then  only  in  its  beginnings, — 
this  understanding  of  all  sacred  doctrines  and 
prophecies  before  all  other  existing  records  of 
them  ?  By  what  marvellous  eccentricities  of 
chance  originated  these  monumental  prophe- 
cies, this  prehistoric  picturing  of  coming  ages, 
these  symbolizations  of  the  mysterious  Provi- 
dence of  God  toward  our  world  for  four  thou- 
sand years,  this  fore-announcement  of  the  end 
from  the  beginning,  this  sublime  petrifaction 
of  the  divine  word  ere  ever  a  chapter  of  it 
was  traced  in  our  Scriptures  ?  When  we  find 
these  things  in  the  Bible  written  long  after- 
wards we  call  them  inspired.  What  then  shall 
we  call  them  when  we  find  them  all  securely 
laid  up  in  stone  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
years  anterior  to  that  Holy  Book,  and  now 
opened  to  us  with  superadded  marvels  upon 
which  the  Bible  scarcely  touches?  I  know 
not  how  others  may  be  impressed,  but  I  feel 
as  if  I  would  be  shutting  my  eyes  to  truth, 
suppressing  the  force  of  evidence,  and  with- 
standing demonstration,  did  I  not  joyfully 
admit  and  embrace  the  fact  that  we  have  here 
a  precious  memorial  from  the  same  blessed 
Jehovah  from  whom  we  have  our  glorious 
Bible,  erected  by  some  chosen  people  whom  his 
own  Spirit  guided,  and  at  the  same  time  a  most 


166 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ancient  monumental  witness  to  all  the  holy 
truths  and  histories. 

And  yet  the  subject  is  not  exhausted.  There 
are  various  other  interesting  matters  to  be 
considered,  all  tending  to  the  same  conclusion ; 
but  I  cannot  enter  upon  them  now.  Reluc- 
tantly, I  must  close  again  without  reaching  the 
end  of  what  needs  to  be  said  in  a  proper  presen- 
tation of  the  case.  Only  one  little  item  more, 
which  seems  to  belong  here,  will  I  yet  notice, 
and  with  that  I  conclude  this  lecture. 

The  Pyramid  and  Jerusalem. 

If  this  Pyramid  is  what  it  would  thus  seem 
to  be,  it  would  be  natural  to  infer  that  it  ought 
to  have  some  connection  with  or  reference  to 
Jerusalem.  All  the  institutes  and  revelations 
of  God  had  their  chief  centre  there  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years.  God  made  it  his  own 
sacred  metropolis,  the  only  one  he  ever  had 
localized  upon  earth.  There  his  only  temple 
stood.  There  his  holy  law  was  deposited. 
Thither  his  people  were  required  to  come  for 
the  celebration  of  their  most  distinguishing 
services.  There  was  the  royal  seat  of  his 
chosen  kings.  There  was  the  sacred  capitol 
of  his  consecrated  priests,  of  his  inspired  proph- 
ets, of  his  holy  scribes.    There  the  glorious 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


167 


Messiah  presented  himself  to  the  elect  nation. 
There  he  died  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  There 
he  rose  triumphant  from  the  dead.  There  he 
ascended  into  heaven.  There  he  poured  out 
the  Holy  Ghost.  There  he  inaugurated  the 
Christian  Church.  There  he  sent  forth  his 
inspired  apostles  for  the  conquest  of  the  world 
to  the  religion  of  the  cross.  Nay,  there  he  is 
to  appear  again  when  he  comes  the  second 
time  as  he  has  promised.  And  if  the  Great 
Pyramid  belongs  at  all  to  the  great  system  of 
God's  redemptive  interpositions  it  could  hardly 
be  wanting  in  some  reference  to  that  "city  of 
the  Lord,  the  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel." 
So  at  least  it  appeared  to  me,  and  led  me  to 
search  for  the  missing  indications.  I  knew 
that  the  Pyramid's  most  distinguished  cubit 
answers  to  the  sacred  cubit  of  Moses ;  that 
the  capacity  measure  of  the  Pyramid's  granite 
Coffer  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant ;  that  the  sabbatic  system  of  the 
Jews  is  distinctly  noted  in  connection  with  the 
Queen's  Chamber;  and  that  the  molten  sea 
had  proportions  of  earth-commensuration  which 
also  appear  in  the  size  of  the  Pyramid's  main 
chamber.  These  are  indeed  remarkable  and 
significant  coincidences,  but  they  do  not  give  so 
direct  a  reference  as  I  thought  ought  to  exist. 


168 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


It  hence  occurred  to  me  to  ascertain  the  exact 
direction  of  Jerusalem  from  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid and  to  try  whether  it  would  fit  to  any  of 
its  interior  angles.  Having  used  two  different 
maps  to  make  sure  of  accuracy,  the  result  came 
out  exactly  the  same  in  both,  namely,  that 
three  of  the  main  inside  angles  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  applied  to  its  north  side  eastward, 
point  directly  to  Jerusalem  !  If  a  cannon-ball 
were  shot  from  the  Great  Pyramid's  north  side 
at  the  precise  angle  eastward  as  that  of  the 
entrance  passage  computed  with  the  base-line, 
or  that  of  the  main  ascending  passage  com- 
puted with  the  same  line,  or  that  of  the  Grand 
Gallery  computed  with  the  passage  to  the 
Queen's  Chamber,  that  ball,  could  it  reach  so 
far,  would  strike  the  Holy  City ! 

Of  itself  this  might  be  passed  as  of  no  spe- 
cial significance,  but  taken  in  connection  with 
what  has  been  developed  in  this  lecture,  the 
unexpected  discovery  induced  a  feeling  as  if 
the  half-smothered  pile  with  all  its  burden  of 
centuries  suddenly  arose  out  of  its  sands  and 
rubbish,  lifted  up  its  stony  hand,  and  looking 
the  very  image  of  old  time,  pointed  its  heavy 
and  half  pendent  finger  to  the  city  of  Mel- 
chisedek,  David,  and  Solomon,  saying  as  with 
a  voice  out  of  the  bottom  ages,  "Look  over 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


169 


there!  Savants  of  the  earth,  and  all  ye  that 
inquire,  go  yonder !  There  observe,  listen, 
and  wait,  and  ye  shall  know  whence  I  am, 
and  whereof  I  witness !" 


/ 


"  And  I  heard  a  loud  voice  saying  in  Heaven,  Now  is  come 
salvation,  and  strength,  and  the  kingdom  of  our  God,  and  the 
power  of  His  Christ:  for  the  accuser  of  our  brethren  is  cast 
down,  which  accused  them  before  our  God  day  and  night. 

"  And  they  overcame  him  by  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  by 
the  word  of  His  testimony." — Rev.  12  :  10,  11. 


(  no  ) 


ANALYSIS  OP  TRADITIONS,  OPINIONS,  AND  RESULTS. 

HATEVER  may  be  ultimately  con- 
cluded respecting  the  origin  and  in- 
tent of  the  Great  Pyramid,  it  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  astonish- 
ing works  ever  produced  by  man.  Apart  from 
all  else,  the  coincidences  between  it  and  our 
most  advanced  physical  sciences,  together  with 
the  thorough  correspondence  between  it  and 
the  Scriptures,  as  pointed  out  in  preceding 
lectures,  establishes  for  it  a  wonderfulness  if 
not  a  sacredness  unequalled  by  anything  out- 
side the  sphere  of  miracle.  But  the  history 
of  traditions  and  opinions  concerning  it  is 
quite  as  remarkable  as  itself,  and  also  strongly 
confirmatory  of  the  conclusions  towards  which 
we  have  been  advancing.  To  show  this  and 
to  indicate  some  of  the  attendant  results  is 
what  I  propose  in  the  present  lecture. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  and  not  without  signifi- 
cance that  whilst  this  oldest,  largest  and  high- 
est edifice  of  stone  ever  piled  by  human  hands 

(171) 


172 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


has  been  before  the  eyes  of  the  most  intelligent 
portions  of  the  race  for  more  than  four  thou- 
sand years,  the  learned  world  has  not  yet  been 
able  to  settle  what  to  think  of  it.  Strange  to 
say,  it  has  always  been  a  puzzle  and  a  mystery. 

The  Ancient  Traditions. 

The  Jews  up  to  the  Saviour's  time  had  a 
cherished  tradition  that  this  Pyramid  was  built 
before  the  flood.  Josephus,  the  learned  scribe, 
gives  it  as  historic  fact  that  Seth  and  his  im- 
mediate descendants  "  were  the  inventors  of 
that  peculiar  sort  of  wisdom  which  is  con- 
cerned with  the  heavenly  bodies  and  their 
order.  And  that  their  inventions  might  not 
be  lost  before  they  were  sufficiently  known, 
upon  Adam's  prediction  that  the  world  was  to 
be  destroyed,  they  made  two  pillars,  the  one 
of  brick,  the  other  of  stone.  They  inscribed 
their  discoveries  on  them  both,  that  in  case 
the  pillar  of  brick  should  be  destroyed  by  the 
flood,  the  pillar  of  stone  might  remain  and  ex- 
hibit these  discoveries  to  mankind."  He  also 
adds,  "  Now  this  (pillar)  remains  in  the  land 
of  Siriad  (Egypt)  to  this  day."  [Jewish  Antiq- 
uities, i,  2.)  Such  an  idea  so  strongly  rooted 
in  the  mind  of  God's  chosen  people  is  very 
noteworthy,  to  say  the  least. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


173 


The  Arabians  had  a  corresponding  tradition. 
In  a  manuscript  (preserved  in  the  Bodleian 
Library,  and  translated  by  Dr.  Sprenger) 
Abou  Balkhi  says,  "  The  wise  men  previous 
to  the  flood,  foreseeing  an  impending  judgment 
from  heaven,  either  by  submersion  or  by  fire, 
which  would  destroy  every  created  thing, 
built  upon  the  tops  of  the  mountains  in  Upper 
Egypt  many  pyramids  of  stone,  in  order  to 
have  some  refuge  against  the  approaching 
calamity.  Two  of  these  buildings  exceeded 
the  rest  in  height,  being  four  hundred  cubits 
high,  and  as  many  broad,  and  as  many  long. 
They  were  built  with  large  blocks  of  marble, 
and  they  were  so  well  put  together  that  the 
joints  were  scarcely  perceptible.  Upon  the 
exterior  of  the  building  every  charm  and 
wonder  of  physic  was  inscribed." 

Massoudi,  another  Arab  writer,  gives  the 
same  even  more  circumstantially,  and  says  that 
on  the  eastern  or  Great  Pyramid  as  built  by 
these  ancients  the  heavenly  spheres  were  in- 
scribed, "likewise  the  positions  of  the  stars 
and  their  circles,  together  with  the  history  and 
chronicles  of  time  past,  of  that  which  is  to 
come,  and  of  every  future  event." 

Another  Arabic  fragment,  claiming  to  be  a 
translation  from  an  ancient  Coptic  papyrus, 


174 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


gives  a  similar  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
pyramids,  and  states  that  "  innumerable  pre- 
cious things "  were  treasured  in  these  build- 
ings, including  "  the  mysteries  of  science,  as- 
tronomy, geometry,  physic,  and  much  useful 
knowledge." 

So,  too,  the  famous  traveller,  Ibn  Batuta, 
says,  that  "  the  pyramids  were  constructed  by 
Hermes,  the  same  person  as  Enoch  and  Edris, 
to  preserve  the  arts  and  sciences  and  other  in- 
telligence during  the  flood."  And  it  was  by 
reason  of  fanciful  exaggerations  of  this  same 
tradition  that  Al  Mamoun  made  his  forced 
entrance  into  this  edifice. 

Of  course  these  accounts  cannot  be  accepted 
in  their  literal  terms.  They  are  manifestly  at 
fault  in  various  particulars.  The  very  oldest 
of  the  pyramids,  by  its  own  testimony,  was  not 
built  till  six  hundred  years  after  the  flood. 
Seth  and  Enoch  therefore  were  not  its  builders, 
whatever  they  may  have  contributed  indirectly 
to  it.  Nor  was  the  motive  for  it  just  the  one 
alleged,  though  perhaps  involving  something 
of  the  truth.  The  idea  of  the  storage  of  ma- 
terial treasures,  or  of  literal  inscriptions  on  the 
walls  and  stones,  has  also  been  proven  erro- 
neous, at  least  as  to  what  now  remains  of  the 
edifice.    But  where  so  much  smoke  is  there  is 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


175 


apt  to  be  some  fire.  Nearly  every  superstition 
in  the  world  has  some  truth  at  the  bottom  by 
which  it  was  brought  into  being,  and  there  is 
every  probability  that  there  is  here  also  some 
kernel  of  reality.  The  pyramids  certainly 
exist,  and  they  exist  just  where  these  tradi- 
tions locate  them.  The  great  one  also  proves 
itself  possessed  of  a  marked  scientific  char- 
acter. Much  of  this  science  must  necessarily 
have  come  over  from  antediluvian  times.  Six 
hundred  years  were  too  short  for  mankind  to 
have  made  all  the  observations  here  recorded. 
Noah  had  special  revelations  in  the  science  of 
measures,  mechanics,  and  all  that  superior 
wisdom  necessary  for  the  building  of  a  ship 
larger  than  the  Great  Eastern,  and  capable  of 
weathering  a  wilder  and  wider  sea  than  ever 
was  navigated  before  or  since.  What  he  and 
his  fathers  knew  before  the  flood  he  certainly 
would  not  leave  behind  when  he  embarked 
for  a  new  world,  which  it  was  his  conscious 
mission  to  people.  The  implements  used  in 
the  building  of  the  ark,  the  knowledge  of 
their  uses,  and  how  to  manufacture  them,  to- 
gether with  all  that  God  had  taught  or  man 
had  learned  on  the  other  side  of  the  flood,  he 
took  with  him  into  the  ark,  and  with  the  same 
disembarked  on  our  side  of  that  awful  water. 


176 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


By  some  of  his  immediate  descendants  only  a 
short  time  after  the  death,  if  not  within  the 
lifetime  of  his  son  Shem,  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  built.  Of  necessity,  therefore,  the  science 
by  which  and  to  which  this  pyramid  was  fash- 
ioned, and  perhaps  the  very  tools  which  helped 
to  build  the  ark,  at  least  the  knowledge  of  how 
to  make  and  use  such  tools,  came  over  from 
beyond  the  flood,  and  found  imperishable  me- 
morial in  this  monument.  Hence,  though  not 
built  by  Seth  and  the  Sethite  antediluvian  pa- 
triarchs, there  was  still  a  real  connection  be- 
tween it  and  them — between  their  science  and 
what  it  embodies. 

And  even  what  these  traditions  state  with 
regard  to  the  intent  of  the  building  is  not 
wholly  without  basis  in  reason.  It  is  pretty 
clear  that  there  was  an  atheistic  and  God-de- 
fiant science  before  the  flood  the  same  as  now, 
which  would  necessarily  create  anxiety  on  the 
part  of  the  holy  patriarchs  to  preserve  and 
perpetuate  the  pure  truth  as  God  had  given  it. 
Their  religious  fidelity  would  involve  this,  and 
we  know  that  they  were  faithful  in  this  re- 
spect. As  a  false  worship,  an  oppressive  rule, 
a  corrupt  system  of  weights  and  measures,  and 
a  perverted  life  in  general  were  set  up  by  Cain 
and  his  wicked  seed,  luring  the  world  to  de- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


177 


struction,  Seth  and  his  posterity,  as  they 
"  continued  to  esteem  God  as  the  Lord  of  the 
universe  and  to  have  an  entire  regard  to  vir- 
tue," held  to  another  theology,  science,  and 
system  of  things  very  sacred  and  dear  to  them, 
which  they  would  be  most  religiously  concerned 
to  preserve  and  transmit  to  remotest  genera- 
tions. Noah  as  a  faithful  Sethite  would  be 
specially  anxious  and  diligent  to  inculcate  and 
perpetuate  that  order,  his  faithfulness  to  which 
had  saved  him  and  his  house  when  all  the  rest 
of  mankind  perished.  The  faithful  among 
his  descendants  could  not  but  share  in  the 
same  anxieties,  particularly  when  they  saw 
mankind  again  relapsing  into  the  old  Cainite 
apostasy.  Out  of  devotion  to  the  truth  of 
God,  nothing  could  be  more  natural  for  them 
than,  over  against  the  impious  Babel  tower,  to 
wish  for  some  permanent  memorial  to  God 
and  the  sacred  wisdom  and  teaching  which 
they  had  from  him.  Acting  thus  under  the 
holiest  of  impulses,  especially  if  aided  in  it  by 
divine  inspiration,  as  Noah  was  in  the  building 
of  the  ark,  just  such  a  modest  but  mighty 
science-laden  pillar  as  the  Great  Pyramid 
might  be  anticipated  as  the  result,  and  the  es- 
sential import  of  these  strange  traditions  thus 
be  realized. 

12 


178 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


More  Modern  Opinions. 

But  over  against  all  such  ideas  there  is  a 
long  array  of  the  most  diverse  and  contradic- 
tory opinions. 

For  a  long  time  it  has  been  customary  to 
regard  the  pyramids  as  mere  monuments  of 
the  power  and  folly  of  the  monarchs  by  whom 
they  were  erected,  and  of  the  enslavement  of 
their  subjects.  Pliny  says  that  they  were 
built  for  ostentation  and  to  keep  an  idle  people 
at  work.  Hales  calls  them  "  stupendous  mon- 
uments of  ancient  ostentation  and  tyranny." 
F.  Barham  Zincke  enlarged  on  the  theory 
that  "  capital  is  bottled-up  labor,  convertible 
again  at  pleasure  into  labor  or  the  produce  of 
labor that  as  there  were  no  government 
bonds,  consols, and  productive  stocks  in  which 
to  invest  in  the  time  of  the  pyramid  builders, 
they  might  as  well  invest  their  barren  surplus- 
age in  making  for  themselves  eternal  monu- 
ments, or  some  safe  and  magnificent  abodes  for 
their  mummies,  as  to  conceal  it  in  barren  treas- 
uries to  tempt  other  people's  covetousness ;  and 
that  this  is  the  way  to  account  for  the  pyra- 
mids !  Robinson  refers  to  them  as  "probably 
the  earliest  as  well  as  the  loftiest  and  most 
vast  of  all  existing  works  of  man  upon  the  face 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


L79 


of  the  earth/'  but  thinks  "  there  is  little  room 
to  doubt  that  they  were  erected  chiefly  if  not 
solely  from  the  vain  pride  of  human  pomp  and 
power."  Stanley  speaks  of  them  as  the  pro- 
duct of  a  silly  ambition,  the  study  of  which 
can  make  them  only  "  more  definite  objects  of 
contempt."  To  such  an  estimate  Brande  has 
sufficiently  answered  that  "  this  is  a  very  super- 
ficial and  prejudiced  view  of  the  matter.  The 
varying  magnitude  of  the  pyramids,  the  fact 
of  their  being  scattered  over  a  space  extending 
lengthwise  about  seventy  miles,  and  their  ex- 
traordinary number,  appear  to  show  pretty 
conclusively  that  they  must  have  been  con- 
structed (in  their  original,  at  least)  from  a  sense 
of  utility  and  duty,  and  not  out  of  caprice  or 
from  a  vain  desire  to  perpetuate  the  names  or 
the  celebrity  of  their  founders." 

Some  trace  the  pyramids  to  Nimrod,  and 
think  they  were  meant  to  be  towers  of  secur- 
ity. But  the  idea  of  a  Nimrodic  origin  of 
these  structures  is  a  mere  surmise,  wild  and 
without  a  particle  of  evidence  looking  in  that 
direction.  And  as  retreats  for  men  in  case  of 
flood  or  invasion,  no  such  structures  ever  could 
have  been  thought  of  by  any  rational  people, 
and  none  others  could  have  built  them.  Des- 
titute of  habitable  space  within,  incapable  in 


180 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


their  perfect  state  of  being  ascended,  and  fur- 
nishing neither  standing  room  nor  shelter  on 
their  summits,  they  would  be  a  poor  resort  for 
safety  in  any  such  emergency. 

Mandeville  considered  them  the  granaries 
built  by  Joseph  to  store  up  the  products  of 
the  seven  years  of  fatness  against  the  succeed- 
ing seven  years  of  famine.  But  nothing  could 
be  more  ill  adapted  for  a  purpose  of  that  sort. 
They  were  a  thousand  times  more  costly  than 
the  worth  of  all  the  corn  they  could  hold,  and 
any  one  of  them  would  require  more  time  to 
construct  than  double  the  number  of  years 
Joseph  had  to  prepare  for  the  famine.  We 
also  have  the  highest  evidence  now  that  the 
Great  Pyramid,  which  alone  was  capable  of 
serving  in  this  line,  was  built  hundreds  of  years 
before  Joseph  was  born. 

Others  have  regarded  them  as  astronomical 
observatories,  and  some  have  even  figured  an 
imaginary  base  around  each  where  the  stu- 
dents of  the  sky  might  sit  and  contemplate 
like  great  heavenly  choirs.  But  that  such 
amazing  buildings  all  in  one  low  place  and  in- 
capable of  being  ascended  should  have  been 
erected  merely  to  furnish  sittings  for  a  few 
star-gazers,  for  whom  any  rock  or  hillock  would 
answer  as  well,  is  a  little  too  much  for  credulity 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


181 


itself.  And  the  modern  uncovering  of  the 
Great  Pyramid's  finish  at  the  base  has  effec- 
tually dispersed  forever  all  these  imaginary 
choirs. 

Others  have  supposed  the  pyramids  intended 
as  artificial  barricades  against  the  sands  of  the 
desert  or  the  breaking  forth  of  the  Nile.  But 
the  eye  of  an  observer  sees  at  a  glance  the 
paltry  absurdity  of  such  an  idea.  The  Nile 
never  had  any  notion  of  breaking  over  this 
hill  of  solid  rock,  and  if  it  had  the  pyramids 
were  a  vain  thing  to  hinder  either  it  or  the 
sands  of  the  desert. 

The  Tomb  Theory. 

A  more  extensively  accepted  opinion  now  is 
that  the  pyramids  were  all  designed  for  royal 
sepulchres  "and  nothing  else,"  which  is  doubt- 
less true  of  most  of  them.  It  is  possible  also 
that  the  idea  of  a  tomb  for  Cheops  may  have 
mingled  with  the  original  design  of  the  first 
and  greatest  of  them,  though  there  is  no  evi- 
dence to  that  effect.  It  may  have  been  given 
out  for  a  tomb  for  him  as  a  mere  blind  to 
the  nation  at  large,  but  in  any  event  the  tomb 
idea  never  could  have  been  more  than  subor- 
dinate and  incidental. 

We  know  now  that  this  pyramid  was  built 


182 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


during  the  reign  of  Cheops,  in  the  so-called 
Fourth  Dynasty  of  Egyptian  Kings.  But  it 
is  nearly  as  certain  that  Cheops  never  was  en- 
tombed in  it.  The  account  given  by  Herodo- 
tus is  sometimes  quoted  in  proof  that  he  was, 
but  it  is  clearly  a  misunderstanding.  That 
account  says  that  Cheops  was  buried  in  some 
subterraneous  place  where  "the  Nile  water  in- 
troduced through  an  artificial  duct  surrounds 
an  island."  But  there  is  not  a  single  opening 
either  in  or  under  the  Great  Pyramid  which  is 
not  far  above  the  highest  Nile  level.  That 
Cheops  never  was  entombed  in  the  so-called 
King's  Chamber  is  therefore  certain  in  so  far 
as  what  Herodotus  tells  about  it  is  accepted. 
Personally  he  knew  nothing.  He  only  records 
what  was  told  him.  And  the  priest  from  whom 
he  got  his  statement  either  was  as  ignorant  as 
himself,  or  Cheops  never  was  buried  in  this 
pyramid.  Diodorus  says  positively  that  Cheops 
wras  not  buried  here,  but  in  some  obscure  and 
unknown  place.  For  six  hundred  years  after 
Al  Mamoun  broke  open  this  pyramid  the 
Arab  writers  who  tell  of  the  feat,  say  not  a 
word  of  any  human  remains  or  indications  of 
sepulture  being  found.  Shehab  Eddin  Amed 
Ben  Yahiya,on  the  contrary,  says  that 44  nothing 
was  discovered  as  to  the  motive  or  time  of  its 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


183 


construction."  Massoudi  tells  of  certain  find- 
ings, such  as  colored  magic  stones,  columns  of 
gold  which  nobody  could  move,  images  in 
green  stone,  and  a  cock  with  flaming  eyes, 
which  stories  none  but  a  Moslem  can  believe ; 
but  says  not  a  word  of  the  finding  of  any  man 
or  any  evidence  of  the  use  of  the  place  as  a 
tomb.  And  not  less  than  a  dozen  of  the  best 
European  authors  on  the  subject,  from  Helfri- 
cus  to  Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson's  Guide  Book 
to  Modern  Egypt,  though  some  of  them  believe 
that  the  Great  Pyramid  was  intended  for  a 
sepulchral  monument,  agree  in  stating  that 
there  is  no  proof  that  anybody  ever  was  en- 
tombed in  it* 

*  Helfricus  (1565)  and  Baumgarten  (1594)  considered  the 
Great  Pyramid  a  tomb,  but  held  that  no  one  was  ever  buried 
in  it.  Pietro  Delia  VaDe  (1616),  Thevenot  (1655),  and  Maillet 
(1692)  give  it  as  the  common  belief  that  no  one  ever  was  therein 
entombed.  Vausleb  r/1664)  could  find  no  clue  by  which  to  de- 
termine why  this  pyramid  was  built.  Shaw  (1721)  denies  that 
it  ever  was  a  tomb  or  ever  was  intended  to  be  one.  Jomard 
(1801),  having  studied  all  the  features  of  this  edifice,  and  com- 
pared them  day  by  day  with  all  the  facts  and  forms  of  old 
Egyptian  pyramids,  wrote  concerning  it,  "  Everything  is  mys- 
terious, I  repeat  it,  in  the  construction  and  distribution  of  this 
monument,  the  passages  oblique,  horizontal,  sharply  bent,  of 
different  dimensions!"  "  We  are  not  at  all  enlightened  either 
upon  the  origin  or  the  employment,  the  utility  or  any  motive 
whatever  for  the  Grand  Gallery  and  various  passages."  Sir  G. 
Wilkinson  says,  "  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  body  of  the 
king  was  really  deposited  in  the  sarcophagus,"  as  he  calls  it. 


184 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


But  if  this  edifice  was  reared  tc  be  a  royal 
sepulchre,  why  was  it  not  used  as  such  ?  Very 
curious  are  the  explanations  to  which  the  tomb 
theorists  have  resorted  to  account  for  the  fail- 
ure. Diodorus  among  the  old  writers,  and 
Baumgarten  among  the  more  modern  ones, 
say,  that  the  people  of  Egypt  were  so  enraged 
at  the  sufferings  endured  from  the  builders  of 
the  two  greatest  pyramids,  and  at  their  various 
violent  actions,  as  to  threaten  to  tear  them  out 
of  their  sepulchres,  whereupon  "they  both 
charged  their  relatives  at  their  death  to  inter 
them  secretly  in  some  obscure  place."  To  this 
Colonel  Vyse  has  conclusively  answered,  "  If 
Cheops  reigned  fifty  years,  and  had  sufficient 
power  to  construct  the  Great  Pyramid,  it  can 
scarcely  be  supposed  that  his  body  was  not 
deposited  in  it  [if  so  intended],  particularly  as 
his  successor  is  said  to  have  reigned  fifty-six 
years,  and  to  have  erected  a  similar  tomb  for 
himself,  which  he  could  scarcely  have  done 
had  his  predecessors  tomb  been  violated  or  any 
doubt  have  existed  about  the  security  of  his 
own." 

Helfricus  and  Veryard  get  over  the  difficulty 


And  Mr.  St.  John  does  not  consider  the  Coffer  a  sarcophagus  at 
all,  and  thinks  the  Great  Pyramid  never  was  and  never  was 
meant  to  be  a  tomb. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


185 


by  assigning  the  Great  Pyramid  to  that  Pha- 
raoh who  perished  in  the  Red  Sea  while  pur- 
suing the  departing  children  of  Israel.  As 
that  monarch's  body  was  never  recovered,  they 
say  of  course  his  sepulchre  never  was  used  ! 
Still  others  explain  that  the  tomb  was  Joseph's, 
and  became  vacant  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus, 
as  his  brethren  took  his  body  with  them  when 
they  went  up  to  the  land  of  promise.  But 
unfortunately  for  these  explanations,  the  Great 
Pyramid  was  built  some  six  hundred  years 
before  Moses  and  several  hundred  years  before 
the  viceroyalty  of  Joseph. 

The  truth  is  that  the  tomb  theory  does  not 
fit  the  facts,  the  traditions,  or  any  knowledge 
that  we  have  on  the  subject.  It  is  wholly 
borrowed  from  the  numerous  later  pyramids, 
ambitiously  and  ignorantly  copied  after  it, 
which  were  intended  and  used  for  royal  sepul- 
chres, but  with  which  the  Great  Pyramid  has 
nothing  in  common,  save  locality  and  general 
shape.  In  all  the  examination  to  which  it 
has  been  subjected,  whether  in  ancient  or 
modern  times,  and  in  all  the  historic  fragments 
concerning  it,  there  is  nothing  whatever  to 
give  or  to  bear  out  the  idea  that  its  intention 
was  simply  that  of  a  royal  sepulchral  monu- 
ment, or  that  can  legitimately  raise  the  tomb 


186 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


theory  any  higher  than  a  possible  but  very 
improbable  supposition. 

Something  more  than  a  Tomb. 

It  is  also  important  in  this  connection  to 
note  that  something  wholly  distinct  from  a 
mere  sepulchre,  or  something  additional  and 
of  much  greater  significance,  has  always 
haunted  the  convictions  of  those  who  have 
most  profoundly  studied  this  wonderful  struc- 
ture. 

Sandys  gives  place  to  the  idea  of  a  tomb, 
but  considers  it  a  tomb  built  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  symbolization  of  spiritual  doctrines 
and  hopes,  together  with  "  conceits  from  as- 
tronomical demonstrations."  Greaves  accepts 
it  for  a  tomb,  but  one  framed  with  intent  to 
represent  spiritual  ideas.  Shaw  denies  its 
tombic  character  altogether,  and  pronounces  it 
a  temple  of  religious  mysteries.  Perry  admits 
that  it  may  have  served  as  a  royal  tomb,  but 
had  special  reference  to  sacred  beliefs.  Jomard 
gave  but  little  credit  to  the  treasure  theory  of 
the  East  or  the  tomb  theory  of  the  West,  and 
considered  this  pyramid  likely  to  prove  itself 
gifted  with  something  of  great  value  to  the 
civilized  world,  particularly  in  the  matter  of 
measures  and  weights.    Wilkinson  considers 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


187 


the  pyramids  tombs,  but  is  persuaded  that  some 
were  "  intended  for  astronomical  purposes." 
Mr.  St.  John  holds  them  as  meant  for  religi- 
ous uses  and  symbolisms.  Agnew  takes  them 
as  tombs,  but  at  the  same  time  as  embodiments 
of  science — "  emblems  of  the  sacred  sphere, 
exhibited  in  the  most  convenient  architectural 
form  " — a  squaring  of  the  circle  outside  (which 
is  true  only  of  the  Great  Pyramid)  and  a 
setting  forth  of  various  geometric,  astronomic, 
and  mathematical  mysteries  inside.  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  considered  them  sources  of  very  im- 
portant information  on  the  subject  of  measures. 
Sir  John  Herschel  was  persuaded  of  the  Great 
Pyramid's  astronomical  character,  and  found 
in  it  standards  of  measure  which  he  urged 
England  to  adopt  in  preference  to  any  other 
on  earth.  Beckett  Denison  admits  it  to  be  a 
highly  scientific  monument  of  metrology, 
mathematics,  and  astronomy.  Hekekyan  Bey, 
of  Constantinople,  in  a  volume  published  in 
1863,  ignores  the  idea  of  the  granite  Coffer 
being  a  sarcophagus,  and  speaks  of  it  as  "  the 
king's  stone,"  deposited  in  its  sanctuary  as  a 
record  of  a  standard  of  measure.  Proctor 
argues  that  it  is  "  highly  probable  "  that  the 
builders  of  the  Great  Pyramid  sought  "to  rep- 
resent symbolically  in  the  proportions  of  the 


188 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


building  such  mathematical  and  astronomical 
relations  as  they  were  acquainted  with/'  and 
"  may  have  had  a  quasi  scientific  desire  to 
make  a  lasting  record  of  their  discoveries,  and 
of  the  collected  knowledge  of  their  time." 
And  since  what  has  been  written  and  pointed 
out  by  John  Taylor,  Piazzi  Smyth,  Sir  John 
Vincent  Day,  Rev.  T.  Goodsir,  Captain  B.  F. 
Tracy,  Mr.  James  Simpson,  Henry  Mitchell, 
Dr.  Alexander  Mackey,  Charles  Casey,  Rev. 
F.  R.  A.  Glover,  Hamilton  Smith,  J.  Ralston 
Skinner,  and  others,  within  the  last  fifteen 
years,  we  can  but  wonder  that  any  one  at  all 
read  up  on  the  subject  should  think  of  with- 
holding from  this  colossal  monument  the 
award  of  something  vastly  more  than  a  mere 
tomb. 

That  subterranean  chamber  cut  deep  into 
the  solid  rock  would  seem  to  indicate  a  tomb, 
but  that  chamber  never  was  finished,  and  no 
one  pretends  that  it  was  ever  used  for  sepul- 
ture. It  must  have  been  meant  for  some  other 
purpose.  A  vast  tumulus,  solidly  built,  with 
but  few  and  narrow  openings,  terminating  in 
finely  polished  rooms  in  its  interior,  would 
seem  to  agree  with  the  idea  of  a  grand  sepul- 
chre, but  when  we  find  in  it  a  transcendent 
geodesic  plan  of  location,  equally  dividing  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


189 


earth  surface  between  the  equator  and  the 
north  pole,  palpably  marking  the  centre  of  all 
habitable  land  distribution  on  the  globe,  and 
giving  the  best  meridional  line  for  the  zero  of 
latitude  for  all  nations,  surely  we  ought  to 
begin  to  think  of  something  else.  A  square 
with  four  sloping  sides  built  up  to  a  point  in 
the  centre,  would  seem  to  be  a  proper  device 
for  an  enduring  royal  mausoleum,  and  hence 
the  same  was  long  accepted  in  Egypt  for  sepul- 
chral monuments  of  the  kings,  but  when  we 
find  in  the  first  and  original  of  them  a  perfect 
geometric  figure,  so  framed  that  the  four  sides 
of  its  base  bear  the  same  proportion  to  its  ver- 
tical height  as  the  circumference  of  a  circle  to 
its  radius,  that  each  of  its  base-lines  measures 
the  even  ten  millionth  part  of  the  semi-axis 
of  the  earth  just  as  many  times  as  there  are 
days  in  the  year,  that  its  height  multiplied  by 
109  gives  the  mean  distance  between  the  earth 
and  its  great  centre  of  light,  that  its  unit  of 
length  is  the  even  five  hundred  millionth  part 
of  the  polar  diameter  of  the  globe  we  inhabit, 
that  its  two  diagonals  of  base  measure  in 
inches  the  precise  number  of  years  in  the  great 
precessional  cycle,  that  its  bulk  of  masonry  is 
an  even  proportion  of  the  weight  of  the  earth 
itself,  and  that  its  setting  and  shaping  are 


190 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


squared  and  oriented  with  microscopic  accu- 
racy,— nothing  of  which  is  to  be  found  in  the 
scores  of  neighboring  pyramidal  tombs, — by 
what  law  of  right  reason  are  we  to  dismiss 
from  our  thoughts  every  idea  but  that  of  a 
mere  sepulchre  ?  A  polished  stone  coffer,  con- 
veniently deep,  and  wide,  and  long  to  accom- 
modate the  body  of  a  man,  and  put  up  in 
noble  place  as  here,  would  seem  to  bespeak  a 
royal  sarcophagus,  but  when  we  find  that  Coffer 
of  the  utmost  plebeian  plainness,  quite  dispro- 
portioned  to  such  a  purpose,  devoid  of  all 
known  covering,  ornament,  inscription  or  se- 
pulchral insignia,  incapable  of  being  placed  in 
its  chamber  with  a  body  in  it,  is  there  not 
room  for  rational  doubt  that  it  was  ever  meant 
or  used  for  a  burial  casket  ?  And  when  we 
perceive  in  it  a  most  accurately  shaped  stand- 
ard of  measures  and  proportions,  its  sides 
and  bottom  cubically  identical  with  its  internal 
space,  the  length  of  its  two  sides  to  its  height 
as  a  circle  to  its  diameter,  its  exterior  volume 
just  twice  the  dimensions  of  its  bottom,  and 
its  whole  measure  just  the  fiftieth  part  of  the 
chamber  in  which  it  was  put  when  the  edifice 
was  built,  we  may  well  wonder  what  all  such 
unparalleled  scientific  elaborations  have  to  do 
with  a  mere  tomb !    The  inclined  entrance 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


191 


of  a  fitting  size  to  receive  a  coffin,  and  down 
which  a  coffin  could  be  conveniently  slid  to 
some  chamber  in  the  depths  below,  would  be 
in  keeping  with  a  tombic  intent,  but  when  we 
find  it  terminating  below  in  what  never  was  a 
burial-chamber,  and  turned  above  in  a  sharp 
angle  which  no  coffin  such  as  the  Coffer  could 
pass,  and  that  entrance  most  inconveniently 
located  just  to  bring  it  into  the  plane  of  the 
meridian  at  an  angle  to  point  to  the  lower  cul- 
mination of  a  pole  star  at  the  same  time  that 
the  Pleiades  are  on  the  meridian  above, — does 
it  not  become  necessary  to  think  of  something 
more  than  a  mere  tomb,  if  not  to  abandon  that 
idea  altogether  ?  All  the  other  pyramids  of 
Egypt  were  meant  for  tombs,  but  none  of  them 
have  any  upward  passages  or  upper  chambers. 
The  Grand  Gallery  in  this  edifice,  so  sublime 
in  height,  so  abrupt  in  beginning  and  termina- 
tion, so  different  from  all  the  other  passages 
before  or  beyond  it,  so  elaborately  and  peculi- 
arly contrived  and  finished  in  every  part,  is  ab- 
solutely incomprehensible  on  the  tomb  theory 
or  on  any  other,  save  that  of  a  high  astronom- 
ical, historical,  and  spiritual  symbolism,  having 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  entombment 
of  an  Egyptian  despot.  And  when  we  find  in 
this  edifice  throughout,  one  great  system  of 


192 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


interrelated  numbers,  measures,  weights,  an- 
gles, temperatures,  degrees,  geometric  problems, 
cosmic  references,  and  general  geodesy,  which 
modern  science  has  now  read  and  verified  from 
it,  reason  and  truth  demand  of  the  teachers 
of  mankind  to  cease  writing  that  "  no  other 
object  presented  itself  to  the  builder  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  than  the  preparation  of  his 
own  tomb.'* 

That  all  these  things  should  appear  in  a 
great  metrologic,  scientific,  and  symbolic  struc- 
ture, meant  to  memorialize  the  most  important 
features  of  universal  nature,  history,  and  the- 
ology, we  can  easily  understand.  But  that 
they  should  turn  up  in  what  was  never  meant 
to  be  anything  but  a  tomb,  as  Lord  Valentia, 
Shaw,  Jomard,  and  others  have  submitted,  is 
beyond  all  rational  comprehension  or  belief. 
Mere  literary  Egyptologists,  whose  world  of 
inquiry  is  bounded  by  classic  tombs,  Siriadic 
sepulchres,  and  heathen  temples, — a  few  sneer- 
ing scientists,  who  find  here  an  impediment  to 
their  atheistic  philosophies, — consequential 
theologues  and  pedants,  who  have  reached  the 
boundaries  of  wisdom, — and  all  the  wise  owls 
of  stereotyped  learning,  ensconced  in  their 
hollo wnesses  of  decay, — may  pooh-pooh  and 
hoot,  but  if  this  pyramid  was  meant  for  a  tomb 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


193 


it  is  the  most  wonderful  sepulchre  ever  con- 
structed, the  mere  accidents  of  which  are  ten 
thousand-fold  more  magnificent  in  wisdom, 
interest,  and  worth  to  mankind,  than  all  the 
tombs  and  Pharaohs  of  all  the  dynasties,  and 
all  their  other  works  besides, — a  tomb,  too,  to 
which  there  has  now  fortunately  come  a  resur- 
rection morning,  second  only  to  that  which 
split  open  the  rocks  of  Calvary  and  demon- 
strated a  glorious  immortality  for  man. 

Not  a  Temple  of  Idolatry. 

Brande  has  expressed  the  opinion,  that  u  if 
we  had  sufficient  knowledge  of  antiquity,  it 
would  probably  be  found  that  the  motives 
which  led  to  the  construction  of  the  pyramids 
were,  at  bottom,  nearly  identical  with  those 
which  led  to  the  construction  of  St.  Peter's 
and  St.  Paul's,  and  that  they  are  monuments 
of  religion  and  piety,  as  well  as  of  the  power 
of  the  Pharaohs."  To  whatever  extent  this 
was  the  fact  with  regard  to  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, there  is  no  evidence  that  it  was  built  for 
an  idol  temple,  whether  to  Athor,as  suggested 
by  Mr.  St.  John,  or  to  Cheops,  as  insinuated  by 
Mr.  Osburn.  Certain  Eastern  peoples  may 
have  made  pilgrimages  to  it,  as  the  Western 
people  do  now,  or  as  the  Queen  of  Sheba  came 

13 


194 


A  MIEACLE  IN  STONE. 


to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  The  Egyp- 
tians themselves  may  afterwards  have  accepted 
it  as  "  the  great  temple  of  Suphis,"  and  even 
appointed  priests  for  the  celebration  of  his 
worship  in  connection  with  it.  But  that  can 
be  much  better  explained  in  other  ways  than 
by  assuming  that  Cheops  built  it  either  as  a 
tomb  for  his  body  or  as  a  temple  for  the  honor 
of  his  soul. 

Egypt  was  a  hotbed  of  idolatry  from  the 
beginning.  Its  people  began  by  the  worship 
of  heroes  and  heavenly  bodies,  and  ended  in 
the  worship  of  bulls,  and  goats,  and  cats,  and 
crocodiles,  and  hawks,  and  beetles.  Their 
false  religion  was  in  full  sway  when  Cheops 
was  born.  Lepsius  tells  us  that  the  whole 
land  was  full  of  temples,  filled  with  statues  of 
gods  and  kings,  their  walls  within  and  without 
covered  with  colored  reliefs  and  hieroglyphics 
in  celebration  of  the  virtues  of  their  hero  gods 
and  their  divine  and  ever  faultless  children. 
"  Nothing,  even  down  to  the  palette  of  a 
scribe,  the  style  with  which  a  lady  painted  her 
eyelashes,  or  a  walking  stick,  was  deemed  too 
insignificant  to  be  inscribed  with  the  name  of 
the  owner,  and  a  votive  dedication  of  the  ob- 
ject to  some  patron  divinity."  And  yet,  here 
is  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  largest,  finest,  and 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


195 


most  wonderful  edifice  in  all  Egypt,  situated 
in  the  midst  of  an  endless  round  of  tombs, 
temples,  and  monuments,  all  uniformly  loaded 
down  with  these  idolatrous  emblems  and  in- 
scriptions, and  yet  in  all  its  thirteen  acres  of 
masonry,  in  all  its  long  avenues,  Grand  Gal- 
lery, and  exquisite  chambers,  in  any  depart- 
ment or  place  whatever,  there  has  never  been 
found  one  ancient  inscription,  votive  record,  or 
the  slightest  sign  or  shred  of  Egypt's  idolatry ! 
In  the  centre  of  the  intensest  impurity,  the 
Great  Pyramid  stands  without  spot,  blemish, 
or  remotest  taint  of  the  surrounding  flood  of 
abominations, — like  the  incarnate  Son  of  God, 
sinless  in  a  world  of  sinners.  And  to  hold 
such  a  monument  to  be  itself  a  temple  of  idol 
worship  is  like  calling  Christ  a  minister  of 
Beelzebub. 

Historic  Fragments. 

Passing  then  to  the  historic  fragments  relat- 
ing to  the  subject,  we  find  additional  reason 
for  the  same  conclusions. 

It  is  given  as  a  fact,  and  specially  empha- 
sized, that  during  the  building  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  the  government  of  Egypt  was 
strangely  and  oppressively  adverse  to  the  estab- 
lished idolatry  of  the  nation.    Cheops  stands 


196 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


charged  on  all  sides  as  at  that  particular  time 
very  "  arrogant  towards  the  gods,"  having 
shut  up  the  temples,  interdicted  the  customary 
worship,  cast  out  the  images  to  be  defiled  on 
the  highways,  and  compelled  even  the  priests 
to  labor  in  the  quarries.  Hence  the  indignant 
hierophant  whom  Herodotus  consulted,  said, 
"  The  Egyptians  so  detest  the  memory  of  these 
kings  that  they  do  not  much  like  to  mention 
their  names."  It  thus  appears  that  Cheops 
was  the  positive  foe  and  punisher  of  idolatry 
at  the  time  this  building  was  being  put  up, 
which  fact  alone  wholly  and  forever  sweeps 
away  all  idea  of  this  pillar  having  been  erected 
for  any  idol's  temple  or  as  a  votive  offering  to 
any  god  or  gods  of  the  Egyptian  Pantheon. 

It  further  appears  from  these  fragments, 
along  with  other  indications,  that  after  the 
Great  Pyramid  was  completed,  late  in  his  life, 
Cheops  relapsed  into  the  old  Egyptian  idola- 
try, became  a  devotee  of  the  very  worship 
which  he  had  so  sternly  suppressed,  and  not 
only  reopened  the  temples,  but  actually  put 
forth  a  book  on  the  gods  of  his  country,  which 
was  highly  esteemed  for  ages  after.*  How, 

*•  See  Osburn's  Mon.  Hist,  of  Egypt,  vol.  i,  p.  277.  Also, 
Shuckford's  Sac.  and  Prof.  Hist,  vol.  i,  p.  157.  Also,  Lenor- 
uixnt  and  Chevallier's  Anc.  Hist,  of  the  East,  vol.  i,  p.  207. 


k  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


197 


then,  did  it  happen  that  during  the  thirty  or 
more  years  in  which  the  Great  Pyramid  was 
building,  this  man,  born  and  reared  in  idolatry, 
and  dying  a  dev6t  of  it,  was  the  suppressor  of 
its  temples,  the  enslaver  of  its  priests,  and  the 
defiler  of  its  gods  ?  The  answer  may  perhaps 
be  found  in  another  particular  with  which 
these  fragments  make  us  acquainted. 

During  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
there  was  a  noted  stranger  abiding  in  Egypt, 
and  keeping  himself  about  the  spot  where  the 
building  was  going  on.  The  priest  consulted 
by  Herodotus  describes  him  as  a  shepherd,  to 
whom  rather  than  to  Cheops  the  Egyptians 
attribute  this  edifice.  The  precise  words  re- 
corded by  Herodotus  are,  "  They  commonly 
call  the  pyramids  after  Philition,  a  shepherd 
who  at  that  time  fed  his  flocks  about  the  place." 
(Rawlinson's  Herodohis,  vol.  ii,  p.  176.)  Here 
is  a  most  remarkable  and  significant  item  of 
information, — an  unknown  but  conspicuous 
stranger,  possessed  of  flocks  and  herds,  abides 
about  the  locality  of  the  Great  Pyramid  for  all 
the  years  it  was  in  building,  and  is  so  related 
to  the  work  that  all  Egypt  for  more  than 
seventeen  hundred  years  considered  him  its 
real  originator  and  builder,  Cheops  merely 
furnishing  the  site,  the  workmen,  and  the 


198 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


materials.  Nor  was  he  some  great  professional 
architect,  whom  Cheops  heard  of  and  sent  for 
to  build  him  a  sepulchre.  The  account  says 
he  was  a  shepherd — a  keeper  of  flocks — and 
hence  of  an  order  whose  business  lay  in  the 
line  of  keeping  sheep,  but  not  in  the  line  of 
building  pyramids  to  the  order  of  foreign 
kings.  He  is  called  "Philition"  or  Philitis. 
This  would  seem  to  imply  that  he  was  one  of 
a  peculiar  and  special  religious  brotherhood, 
or  that  he  was  a  Philistian, — one  who  came 
from  or  located  in  Philistia. 

There  were  several  classes  of  Philistines, 
different  in  religion  and  race.  The  Philis- 
tines of  Jewish  times  are  of  unsavory  odor. 
But  it  was  not  so  with  certain  earlier  Philis- 
tines whom  the  Scriptures  mention  with  honor 
as  a  people  specially  favored  of  Jehovah. 
When  Israel  was  on  the  way  to  Canaan,  in 
order  to  revive  their  drooping  confidence,  God 
told  them  of  a  much  earlier  people  whom  he 
had  in  like  manner  conducted  up  from  Egypt. 
He  calls  them  "  the  Caphtorims  which  came 
out  of  Caphtor"  (Deut.  2  :  23).  This  Caph- 
tor  was  the  very  region  of  Egypt  in  which  the 
Great  Pyramid  stands,  and  these  Caphtorims 
from  Caphtor,  God  elsewhere  calls  "  the  Philis- 
tines? whom  He  "  brought  up  from  Caphtor." 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


199 


(Amos  9  :  7.)  So  that  not  only  from  Herodo- 
tus and  his  informant,  but  from  the  Bible 
itself,  we  learn  of  Philistines  once  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Great  Pyramid,  who  were  the 
objects  of  the  Divine  favor,  and  whom  God 
brought  up  from  thence,  as  he  long  afterwards 
brought  up  the  children  of  Israel.* 

*  It  has  been  found  very  difficult  to  trace  the  origin  and 
history  of  this  early  people.  The  Philistines  of  the  time  of 
the  Judges,  and  of  David,  were  a  long  subsequent  people,  who 
do  not  appear  in  the  settlement  of  Israel  under  Joshua.  They 
are  v>ot  mentioned  in  any  of  the  assaults  and  conquests  of  the 
Jews  on  their  first  arrival.  Ewald  considers  this  conclusive 
against  their  being  inhabitants  of  Palestine  at  that  time.  Still, 
in  the  time  of  Abraham,  we  read  of  Philistines  in  Canaan. 
(Gen.  21  :  32-34.)  Abraham  was  on  friendly  terms  with  them, 
entered  into  a  covenant  of  peace  with  them,  and  "  sojourned 
many  days  "  with  them.  They  feared  and  reverenced  the  true 
G-od.  (Gen.  21  :  22.)  Ewald  agrees  that  their  language  was 
Shemitic.  They  were  an  organized  and  powerful  people.  Their 
sovereigns  had  the  title  of  Abimelech,  a  Hebrew  word,  meaning 
Father  King,  as  the  sovereigns  of  Egypt  were  all  called  Pha- 
raoh, and  the  sovereigns  of  Rome,  Caesar.  The  Caphtor, 
whence  they  came,  Stark  makes  the  Delta  of  Egypt,  and  the 
Caphtorims  some  early  part  of  the  Hyksos  or  shepherd  kings, 
known  to  Egyptian  history.  Dr.  Jamieson  says,  "  There  is 
every  reason  to  believe  the  sovereigns  were  connected  with  the 
shepherd  kings  of  Lower  Egypt,  and  were  far  superior  in  civili- 
zation and  refinement  to  the  Canaanitish  tribes  around  them." 
(Com.  on  Gen.  20:  2.)  The  Phoenician  traditions  say  they  came 
from  Arabia.  They  differed  from  the  Egyptians  in  dress  and 
manners,  as  proven  by  the  monuments  ;  and  also  in  language, 
laws,  and  religion,  &i  justly  inferable  from  the  Bible  notices  of 
them.  The  intent  of  the  reference  to  them  in  Amos  9  :  7 
plainly  is  to  show  that  Israel  was  not  the  only  people  which 


200 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


There  is  also  another  remarkable  fragment 
bearing  on  the  subject.  Manetho,  an  Egyp« 
tian  priest  and  scribe,  is  quoted  by  Josephus, 
and  others,  as  saying,  "  We  had  formerly  a 
king  whose  name  was  Timaus.  In  his  time 
it  came  to  pass,  I  know  not  how,  that  the 
Deity  was  displeased  with  us  ;  and  there  came 
up  from  the  East  in  a  strange  manner  men  of 
an  ignoble  race,  who  had  the  confidence  to 
invade  our  country,  and  easily  subdued  it  by 
their  power  without  a  battle.  And  when  they 
had  our  rulers  in  their  hands  they  demolished 
the  temples  of  the  gods."  (See  Cory's  Frag- 
ments, p.  257.)  This  Timaus  of  Manetho  is 
doubtless  the  same  person  as  the  Chemmes  of 

had  been  divinely  led  from  one  country  to  settle  in  another.  R. 
S.  Poole  considers  the  allusion  as  seeming  to  imply  oppression 
prior  to  the  migration,  but  that  is  not  necessarily  involved. 
There  is  no  allusion  to  deliverance,  but  simply  to  a  bringing  of 
them  thither  by  special  divine  direction.  Abimelech  in  Uerar, 
and  Melchisedec  in  Salem,  would  seem  to  be  closely  related  as 
to  religion,  language,  and  race.  They  were  perhaps  the  repre- 
sentatives of  two  branches  of  one  and  the  same  people,  who 
came  into  Palestine  at  one  and  the  same  time,  from  one  and  the 
same  place  in  Egypt,  under  one  and  the  same  motive,  close 
about  the  time  of  the  completion  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  There 
certainly  is  nothing  to  disprove  this  conclusion.  The  name  of 
Abimelech 's  general-in-chief, PAico£,  though  made  up  of  Hebrew 
syllables,  is  not  a  Hebrew  word,  but  seems  to  bear  an  Egyptian 
influence  in  its  formation,  as  Pi-hahiroth,  Pi-beseth,  Pi-thom. 
It  is  most  likely  a  designation  of  office,  bearing  traces  of  soma 
connection  with  Egypt,  but  not  of  it. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


201 


Diodorus,  the  Cheops  of  Herodotus,  and  the 
Chufu  or  Suphis  of  the  monuments.  The  de- 
scription is  peculiar,  and  though  tinctured 
with  Egypt's  proverbial  hatred  to  this  class  of 
shepherds,  indicates  a  wonderful  influence  won 
over  the  king  by  purely  peaceable  means, 
which  could  hardly  have  been  less  than  super- 
natural. Manetho  himself  refers  it  to  the 
pleasure  and  displeasure  of  the  Deity,  and 
further  adds,  that  this  people  "was  styled 
HyJcsos,  that  is,  the  shepherd  kings"  and  that 
"  some  say  they  were  Arabians."* 

Manetho  wrote  about  three  hundred  years 

*  Wilford,  in  his  Asiatic  Researches,  vol.  iii,  p.  225,  gives 
an  extract  from  the  Hindoo  records  which  seems  to  sustain,  in 
some  important  particulars,  this  fragment  of  Manetho.  The 
extract  says,  that  one  Tamo-vatsa,  a  child  of  prayer,  wise  and 
devout,  prayed  for  certain  successes,  and  that  God  granted  his 
requests,  and  that  he  came  into  Egypt  with  a  chosen  company, 
entered  it  "  without  any  declaration  of  war,  and  began  to  ad- 
minister justice  among  the  people,  to  give  them  a  specimen  of  a 
good  king."  This  Tamo-vatsa  is  represented  in  the  account  as 
a  king  of  the  powerful  people  called  the  Pali,  shepherds,  who  in 
ancient  times  governed  the  whole  country  from  the  Indus  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Ganges,  and  spread  themselves,  mainly  by  coloni- 
zation and  commerce,  very  far  through  Asia,  Africa,  and  Eu- 
rope. They  colonized  the  coasts  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the 
sea-coasts  of  Arabia,  Palestine,  and  Africa,  and  were  the  long- 
haired people  called  the  Berbers  in  North  Africa.  They  are 
likewise  called  Palestince,  which  name  has  close  affinity  with 
the  Philition  of  Herodotus.  These  Pali  of  the  Hindoo  records 
are  plainly  identical  with  some  of  the  Joktanic  peoples.  See 
infra. 


202 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


before  Christ,  and  his  statements  are  some* 
what  mixed  with  the  history  of  another  set  of 
shepherd  kings  of  a  long-subsequent  dynasty, 
but  the  ground  of  the  story  belongs  to  the 
period  of  Cheops  and  the  Great  Pyramid,  for 
it  was  then  that  this  peaceable  control  was 
obtained  over  the  reigning  sovereigns  by  a 
shepherd  prince,  the  temples  closed,  the  gods 
destroyed,  and  the  people  oppressed  with  labor 
for  the  government.  Manetho  says  that  these 
"  Arabians  "  left  Egypt  in  large  numbers,  but 
instead  of  going  to  Arabia,  they  went  up  to 
"that  country  now  called  Judea,  and  there 
built  a  city  and  named  it  Jerusalem. " 

It  would  thus  appear  that  the  shepherd 
prince  connected  with  the  building  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  was  from  Arabia,  and  subse- 
quently located  in  Palestine  (Philistia),  hence 
probably  called  "  Philition" — the  Philistian. 
The  connection  of  him  with  the  building  of 
Jerusalem  is  very  remarkable,  and  may  serve 
to  identify  him  with  some  Scripture  character. 
Joseph  us  quotes  the  passage  as  referring  to  the 
Jews,  but  that  can  hardly  be  the  case.  The 
Jews  did  not  originally  build  J erusalem.  They 
did  not  even  have  possession  of  it  till  the  time 
of  David,  about  five  hundred  years  after 
the  Exodus.    Jerusalem  existed,  and  wore  at 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


203 


least  a  part  of  its  present  name,  full  a  thou- 
sand years  before  David.  As  early  as  Abra- 
ham's time  it  was  the  seat  of  a  great  king,  to 
whom  Abraham  himself  paid  reverence  and 
tithes,  and  from  whom  he  accepted  blessing 
and  communion,  as  "  priest  of  the  Most  High 
God."  With  reference  to  his  character  and 
office,  the  Bible  calls  him  Melchisedec,  plainly 
a  descriptive  and  not  a  proper  name,  he  being 
first  "  king  of  righteousness,  and  after  that 
also  king  of  Salem."    (Heb.  7  :  1,  2.) 

Who  was  Melchisedec  ? 

An  illustrious  personage  thus  breaks  upon 
our  notice  with  all  the  sudden  grandeur  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  itself.  Who  he  was  has  been 
something  of  a  question  for  thousands  of 
years, — a  question  which  perhaps  cannot  be 
positively  answered.  Kohlreiff,  in  his  Chron- 
ologia  Sacra  (Hamburg,  1724),  as  cited  by 
Wolfius,  identifies  this  personage  with  the  pa- 
triarch Job.  There  is  also  more  to  sustain 
this  view  than  any  other  ever  presented. 

The  time  is  the  same.  On  general  internal 
evidences,  Dr.  Owen  (in  Theologoumen.) ,  assigns 
the  Book  of  Job  to  the  period  immediately 
preceding  Abraham.  The  length  of  Job's  life 
places  him  in  the  pre-Abrahamic  age  of  Serug; 


204 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Reu,  and  Peleg.*  He  evidently  lived  before 
the  Exodus,  and  before  the  destruction  of 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  for  though  the  Book  of 
Job  refers  to  Adam,  the  fall,  and  the  deluge, 
there  is  no  allusion  whatever  to  the  awful 
disaster  to  the  cities  of  the  plain,  the  Sinaitic 
laws,  or  any  of  the  miraculous  events  of 
Israelitish  history.  Such  an  omission  in  such 
a  discussion,  in  the  vicinity  of  these  great 

*  "  The  lives  of  mankind  were  so  much  shortened  ere  the  days 
of  Abraham,  that  though  he  lived  but  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  years,  yet  he  is  said  to  have  1  died  in  a  good  old  age,  an 
old  man,  and  full  of  years.'  Peleg,  who  was  five  generations 
before  Abraham,  lived  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  years. 
Reu,  the  son  of  Peleg,  lived  as  many.  Serug,  the  son  of  Reu, 
lived  two  hundred  and  thirty.  But  the  lives  of  their  descend- 
ants were  not  so  long.  The  LXX  in  their  translation  say  that 
Job  lived  in  all  two  hundred  and  forty  or  two  hundred  and 
forty-eight  years»  Nahor,  the  grandfather  of  Abraham,  lived 
but  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  years.  Terah,  Abraham's 
father,  lived  two  hundred  and  five.  Abraham  lived  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five,  Isaac  lived  one  hundred  and  eighty,  and 
the  lives  of  their  children  were  shorter.  If,  therefore,  Job 
lived  two  hundred  and  forty  or  two  hundred  and  forty-eight 
years,  he  must  have  been  contemporaneous  with  Peleg,  Reu, 
or  Serug,  for  men's  lives  were  not  extended  to  so  great  a  length 
after  their  days.  He  lived  one  hundred  and  forty  years  after 
his  affliction,  and  when  that  affliction  came  he  had  seven  sons 
and  three  daughters,  and  all  his  children  seem  to  have  been 
grown  up  and  settled  in  life  from  the  beginning  of  his  misfor- 
tunes." His  age  could  not  therefore  be  less  than  two  hundred 
years  at  the  least.  See  Shuckford's  Sac.  and  Profane  History, 
vol.  i,  p.  263,  264,  who  also  makes  Job  contemporaneous  with 
Suphis  (Cheops). 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


205 


occurrences,  could  not  happen  if  these  events 
had  preceded  it.  Job  speaks  of  the  rock 
yielding  him  a  spring  of  mineral  oil  (19  :  6), 
and  such  oilsprings  there  evidently  were  in  the 
region  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  prior  to  the 
great  burning  of  those  cities,  and  the  earth 
under  and  about  them  ;  but  they  have  never 
since  been  found.  Moses  alludes  to  the  same, 
but  only  by  way  of  metaphor  drawn  from  the 
Book  of  Job,  for  no  such  circumstance  ever 
literally  occurred  in  the  history  of  Israel. 
Those  oilsprings  were  drained  and  exhausted 
when  those  cities  burned.  Besides,  sundry 
astronomical  calculations  made  from  notices  of 
constellations  contained  in  the  Book  of  Job 
fix  the  time  of  the  patriarch's  great  trial  con- 
temporaneous with  Melchisedec* 

*  Four  constellations  are  mentioned  together  in  the  Book  of 
Job  9  :  9,  and  38  :  31,  32,  and  in  four  opposite  quarters  of  the 
heavens,  Kimah,  the  Pleiades  in  the  constellation  Taurus  ;  Kesil, 
the  equinoctial  nodus  in  Scorpio,  the  name  being  perpetuated  in 
the  Chaldean  Kislev  or  November  ;  Mazzaroth,  Sirius  or  liter- 
ally Egypt's  star  sign  ;  and  Ish,  Aquarius,  who  in  a  manner 
revenged  himself  on  the  sons  of  men  in  the  deluge.  These 
four  are  named  in  their  oppositions,  and  so  in  Job's  day,  they 
correspond  to  the  two  equinoctial  and  the  two  solstitial  constel- 
lations. Kimah  answers  to  the  vernal  equinox,  Kesil  to  the 
autumnal,  and  Mazzaroth  corresponds  to  the  summer  solstice, 
and  Ish  to  the  winter  solstice.  President  Goguet,  in  his  Origin 
of  Laws,  a  translation  of  which  was  published  in  Edinburgh, 
in  1761  (the  Paris  ed.  of  1758),  makes  the  calculation  by  the 


206 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


The  country  of  the  one  is  also  that  of  the 
other.  Abraham  met  Melchisedec  in  Pales- 
line,  but  no  one  claims  that  he  was  born  and 
reared  there.  There  were  important  Shemitic 
migrations  hitherward  prior  to  that  of  Abra- 
ham.f  In  the  Chronicon  Paschale  the  tradition 

precessional  cycle,  and  says  that  it  fixes  the  epoch  of  Job's  trial 
in  the  year  2136  B.C.,  which  would  be  just  thirty-four  years 
after  the  building  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  Dr.  Brinkley,  of 
Dublin,  repeated  the  calculation,  and  brought  it  out  somewhere 
about  2130  B.C.  Dr.  Hales  adopts  the  calculation  by  Brinkley, 
and  refers  to  another  calculation  on  the  same  data  by  Ducoutant, 
in  a  Thesis  published  in  Paris,  in  1765,  which  gives  the  same 
within  forty-two  years.  Such  a  coincidence,  says  Wemyss,  is 
very  striking,  and  the  argument  deduced  from  it,  if  well 
founded,  would  amount  nearly  to  a  demonstration. 

f  "  The  primeval  Canaanites  were  of  the  race  of  Ham,  and  no 
doubt  originally  spoke  a  dialect  closely  akin  to  the  Egyptian, 
but  it  is  clear  that  before  the  coming  of  Abraham  into  their 
country  they  had  by  some  means  become  Shemitized,  since  all 
the  Canaanitish  names  of  the  time  are  palpably  Shemitic. 
Probably  the  movements  from  the  country  about  the  Persian 
Gulf,  of  which  the  history  of  Abraham  furnishes  an  instance, 
had  been  in  progress  for  some  time  before  he  quitted  Ur,  and 
an  influx  of  emigrants  from  that  quarter  had  made  Shemitism 
already  predominant  in  Syria  and  Palestine  at  the  date  of  his 
arrival." — Ra wlinson 's  Herodotus,  vol.  i,  p.  537. 

Evvald,  in  his  Hist,  of  Israel,  argues  to  the  same  effect.  He 
says,  "  It  is  clear  that  there  was  here  a  primitive  people  which 
once  extended  over  the  whole  land  of  the  Jordan  to  the  left, 
and  to  the  Euphrates  on  the  right,  and  to  the  Red  Sea  on  the 
south,"  and  that  "  these  people,"  who  had  very  largely  dis- 
placed the  old  Canaanites  in  Palestine,  "  were  of  Shemitic 
race."— Vol.  i,  p.  231. 

Hence,  as  Wilkins  observes,  Abraham  on  his  arrival  found 
the  population  consisting,  at  least  in  a  very  large  measure,  of 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


207 


is  leceived  with  strong  assurance,  that  Mel- 
chisedec, like  Abraham,  came  from  beyond  the 
Jordan.  Nor  is  there  any  doubt  of  Job's 
having  come  from  that  same  mysterious 
"  East," 

In  general  character  and  position,  Job  and 
Melchisedec  appear  to  be  one  and  the  same. 
Paul  calls  on  his  Jewish  readers  to  "  consider 
how  great  this  man  (Melchisedec)  was,"  and 
of  Job  the  sacred  record  is,  "  This  man  was 
the  greatest  of  all  the  men  of  the  East."  Mel- 
chisedec was  "  priest  of  the  Most  High  God," 
and  of  Job  it  is  written  that  he  sent  and 
offered  burnt-offerings  for  his  sons  and  daugh- 
ters "  continually."  Melchisedec  was  a  princely 
personage — "  King  of  Salem ;"  and  all  agree 
in  assigning  a  princely  rank  to  Job.  It  re- 
mains a  question  till  now,  whether  he  was  not 
a  real  "  king,"  many  maintaining  that  he  was. 

tribes  with  which  he  would  have  close  affinities  of  blood  and 
language.  Hence,  also,  we  have  no  hint  in  the  Biblical  narra- 
tive that  points  to  any  difference  of  language,  such  as  we  often 
have  when  the  Jews  came  in  contact  with  nations  whose  speech 
was  really  unintelligible  to  them,  as  the  Egyptians  (Psalm  81  : 
5,  114 :  1).  On  the  contrary  we  find  Abraham  negotiating  with 
the  children  of  Heth,  making  a  treaty  with  Abimelech,  Jacob 
and  his  sons  communing  with  the  people  of  Shechem,  Israel's 
spies  conversing  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  and  Solomon 
corresponding  with  Hiram,  without  the  slightest  reference  to 
the  need  of  any  interpreter  between  them.  See  Wilkins's 
Phoenicia  and  Israel,  pp.  3-10. 


208 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


He  certainly  was  at  least  a  great  emir.  Mel- 
chisedec  was  a  worshipper  of  the  one  true 
God,  outside  of  the  Abrahamic  line,  and  the 
same  is  true  of  Job.  From  these  and  other 
coincidences  it  would  seem  that  in  Melchisedec, 
King  of  Salem,  we  do  really  meet  the  great 
patriarch  of  Uz,  near  the  end  of  those  one 
hundred  and  forty  years  of  glory  which  suc- 
ceeded his  sore  affliction. 

The  genealogical  tables  also  supply  a  name 
which  would  seem  to  indicate  the  existence 
of  an  Arabian  Job,  who  appears  at  the  right 
time  and  in  the  right  connections  to  be  this 
same  identical  patriarch.  In  the  tenth  of 
Genesis,  the  sacred  historian  departs  entirely 
from  his  usual  method,  in  naming  the  thirteen 
sons  of  Joktan,  as  if  for  the  special  purpose 
of  reaching  the  last  in  the  list.*   He  sets  down 

*  "The design  of  Moses  after  he  has  completed  the  narrative 
of  the  dispersion  of  the  third  and  fourth  generations  of  the 
descendants  of  Noah,  and  thus  related  the  ancestry  of  the  chief 
nations  of  the  world,  undoubtedly  was  to  continue  the  line  of 
Shem  to  that  of  Abraham  only.  All  interest  in  the  other  pa- 
triarchal families  appears  to  have  ceased  ;  he  takes  no  notice  of 
any  but  that  of  Joktan.  The  family  of  Joktan  were  not  the 
ancestors  of  the  Messiah  ;  neither  were  any  of  the  sons  of  this 
patriarch  so  peculiarly  distinguished  in  the  subsequent  history 
of  Israel,  that  the  enumeration  of  their  names  only  might  have 
been  anticipated  in  this  genealogy.  But  nothing  is  written  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  without  an  object,  and  in  the  absence  of 
any  other  object  for  which  Moses  deviated  from  his  plan,  and 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


209 


that  name  as  Job-ab,  which  is  quite  capable  of 
being  read  father-Job,  in  allusion  to  some  such 
position  and  career  as  that  of  the  great  patri- 
arch of  Uz,  or  Melchisedec.  Alterations  were 
likewise  made  in  the  names  of  Abraham  and 
Sarah  in  allusion  to  their  special  calling  and 
office.  The  seventy  translators  from  tradition, 
most  of  the  Hebrew  authors,  Origen,  the  Coptic 
version  of  Job,  the  Greek  fathers,  and  various 
modern  writers,  represent  Job-ab  and  Job  as 
one  and  the  same  name.  In  that  case  we 
would  here  have  a  Job,  a  veritable  Arabian, 
a  descendant  of  Eber  (through  Joktan,  as 
Abraham  through  Peleg),  and  hence  a  true 
Hebrew  in  the  older  and  wider  sense,  who 
answers  well  to  all  we  know  either  of  Mel- 
chisedec or  the  Uzean  patriarch. 

From  Job  we  have  the  most  unique  and  in- 
dependent book  in  the  sacred  canon — the  sub- 
recorded  the  names  of  the  sons  of  Joktan  only,  terminating  the 
list  with  the  name  of  Jub-ab  or  Job, — I  conclude  that  his 
design  was  to  tell  us  that  the  Job  who  was  the  youngest  son  of 
Joktan  was  the  Job  who  lived  in  the  land  of  Uz,  though  he 
was  not  born  there,  and  who  suffered  and  was  tempted  as  the 
Book  of  Job  has  recorded.  The  sons  of  Joktan  were  enumer- 
ated that  the  name  of  Job  might  be  placed  before  the  children 
of  Israel  as  the  witness  to  the  truth  of  those  doctrines  which 
their  patriarchal  ancestors  received,  which  Moses  taught,  and 
which  the  Church  of  God  in  all  ages  has  believed." — Dr.  Town- 
send's  Bible,  vol.  i,  p.  131. 

14 


210 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


limest  section  of  the  inspired  records, — a  grand 
monument  of  patriarchal  life,  manners,  and 
theology, — evidencing  a  knowledge  of  earth 
and  sky,  of  providence  and  grace,  and  a  com- 
mand of  thought,  sentiment,  language,  and 
literary  power,  which  no  mere  man  has  ever 
equalled.  In  it  we  find  a  familiarity  with 
writing,  engraving  in  stone,  mining,  metallurgy, 
building,  shipping,  natural  history,  astronomy, 
and  science  in  general,  showing  an  advanced, 
organized,  and  exalted  state  of  society,  answer- 
ing exactly  to  what  pertains  above  all  to  the 
sons  of  Joktan,  whose  descendants  spread 
themselves  from  Upper  Arabia  to  the  South 
Seas,  and  from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  pillars 
of  Hercules,  tracking  their  course  as  the  first 
teachers  of  our  modern  world  with  the  greatest 
monuments  that  antiquity  contains. 

The  Primitive  Civilizers. 

It  has  become  the  fashion  to  refer  all  this 
to  Arabian  Cushites,  or  a  people  of  Hamitic 
blood,  but  it  is  one  of  the  blunders  of  the 
would-be  wise.  Because  the  name  of  Cush, 
usually  rendered  Ethiopia,  became  early  at- 
tached to  some  undefined  portions  of  Arabia, 
and  because  the  children  of  Canaan  originally 
settled  in  Palestine,  therefore  everything  re] at- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


211 


ing  to  prehistoric  Arabians  and  dwellers 
along  the  Mediterranean  shores  must  needs  be 
credited  to  the  children  of  Ham,  though  it 
should  leave  to  the  She  mites  scarce  a  place  on 
earth  !  Such  a  theory  may  have  its  day,  but 
there  is  every  evidence,  biblical  and  secular, 
literary  and  monumental,  that  the  greatest 
and  mightiest  population  of  the  ancient  Arabia 
was  mainly,  if  not  exclusively,  of  pre-Abra- 
hamic  Shemitic  stock.  The  tribes  which  pos- 
sessed it  were  mostly  of  the  seed  of  Joktan, 
son  of  Eber,  till  the  descendants  of  Abraham 
through  Esau  and  Keturah,  and  the  descend- 
ants of  Lot,  began  to  fill  in  from  the  north- 
west.* These  Joktanites  were  the  true  Ara- 
bians, and  the  superior  people  who  occupied 
the  most  important  portions  of  the  country, 
populated  its  shores,  gave  it  their  Heberic  lan- 
guage, cultivated  every  interest  of  human 
society  and  greatness,  planted  their  colonies  in 
Eastern  Africa,  around  the  whole  eastern  coast 


*  11  Ethnologers  are  now  agreed,"  says  Rawlinson,  "  that  in 
Arabia  there  have  been  three  distinct  phases  of  colonization — 
first,  the  Cushite  occupation,  recorded  in  Gen.  10  :  7  ;  secondly, 
the  settlement  of  the  Joktanites,  described  in  verses  26-30  of 
the  same  chapter  ;  and  thirdly,  the  entrance  of  the  Ishmaelites, 
which  must  have  been  nearly  synchronous  with  the  establisn- 
ment  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine." — Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol. 
i,  p.  357. 


212 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  the  Mediterranean,  and  westward  as  far  as 
Carthage,  the  Guadalquiver,  and  the  shores  of 
the  Atlantic.    They  were 

The  true  ancient  Erythraean  stock, 
E'en  that  sage  race  who  first  essayed  the  deep, 
And  wafted  merchandise  to  courts  unknown  ; 

The  first  great  founders  of  the  world, 
Of  cities,  and  of  mighty  states,  and  who  first  viewed 
The  starry  lights,  and  formed  them  into  schemes.* 

*  The  names  of  the  progenitors  of  these  peoples,  and  the 
notices  we  have  of  them  and  their  descendants,  abundantly  in- 
dicate all  this. 

Almodad  means  the  measurer,  and  the  Chaldee  paraphrase  of 
Onkelos  and  Jonathan  attests  that  he  was  accounted  the  in- 
ventor of  geometry,  and  the  man  who  lined  or  measured  the 
earth  with  lines  ;  hence,  also  a  great  astronomer. 

Of  Sheleph,  the  same  paraphrase  says  that  he  led  forth  the 
waters  of  rivers,  that  is,  instituted  canals,  and  operated  in 
water-works,  perhaps  the  inventor  of  water-mills. 

Hazarmaveth  gave  his  name  to  a  country  which  still  bears  it, 
and  was,  according  to  tradition,  a  great  grammarian. 

Jerah,  the  fourth  son  of  Joktan,  who  is  called  Ierab  in  the 
ancient  Arabic  records  and  traditions,  is  the  man  from  whom 
we  have  the  name  of  Arabia,  the  land  of  Ierab.  He  gave  his 
name  to  a  province  of  Tehama,  in  which  he  settled,  and  thence 
it  became  extended  to  the  country  in  general,  which  the  natives 
still  call  the  Peninsula  of  Ierab,  son  of  Joktan,  whom  the 
Arabians  call  Kahtan.  The  Jerachaeans  were  growers  of 
grains,  miners,  and  refiners  of  gold. 

Uzal  peopled  the  great  country  of  Yemen,  "  famous  from 
all  antiquity  for  the  happiness  of  its  climate,  its  fertility,  and 
riches."  Its  capital,  Sanaa — the  city  of  learning — vied  with 
Damascus  in  the  abundance  of  its  fruits,  and  the  pleasantness 
of  its  water.  His  descendants  were  manufacturers,  merchants, 
and  travelling  traders,  whom  Ezekiel  refers  to  as  present  in  the 
fairs  of  Tyre,  with  possessions  of  bright  iron,  cassia,  and 
calamus. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


213 


Nor  does  it  argue  anything  against  Job's 
being  Joktan's  son,  that  in  the  Mosaic  or  sub- 

Dilda  was  the  father  of  a  great  tribe  of  traffickers  in  aro- 
matics. 

Obal  peopled  the  southern  extremity  of  Arabia,  whence 
colonies  crossed  the  Straits  of  Babel mandeb,  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  bay  still  called  after  him,  the  Avalitic.  His  descend- 
ants were  great  merchants,  and  carried  on  large  trade  in  the 
best  myrrh,  and  other  odorous  drugs,  also  in  ivory,  tortoise- 
shell,  tin,  wheat,  and  wine. 

Sheba  was  the  father  of  one  of  the  tribes  of  the  Sabeans. 
There  was  a  tribe  of  Cushite- Sabeans,  whose  vulgar  depreda- 
tions are  referred  to  in  the  Book  of  Job,  and  also  a  later  tribe 
headed  by  a  son  of  Jokshan,  grandson  of  Abraham  The  Jok- 
tanic  Sabeans  were  located  near  the  Red  Sea,  and  were  the 
richest  of  all  the  ancient  Arabians  in  gold,  silver,  and  precious 
stones.  Ezekiel  mentions  them  as  trading  with  ancient  Tyre. 
They  were  metallurgists,  lapidaries,  and  dealers  in  all  rare  lux- 
uries. They  were  among  the  wisest  and  most  intelligent,  as 
well  as  the  richest  and  most  enterprising  of  ancient  peoples. 
It  was  their  queen  who  came  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 
and  from  among  them,  according  to  the  Egyptian  accounts,  there 
came  up  delegations  to  visit  and  view  the  Great  Pyramid  as  if 
comprehending  and  reverencing  it  as  no  Egyptians  ever  did. 

Ophir  is  the  very  word  for  wealth,  and  from  the  name  of  the 
descendants  of  this  son  of  Joktan,  we  have  our  word  magazine, 
illustrative  of  their  consequence  as  bankers  and  depositaries  of 
treasures.  From  them  Solomon  got  almug  trees  for  pillars  to 
the  temple,  brought  in  the  ships  of  Hiram,  himself  being  of  this 
same  Joktanic  blood  and  language 

And  with  Job  to  complete  the  list  we  have  here  beyond 
question  the  most  illustrious  family  of  peoples  of  prehistoric 
times. 

Baldwin,  in  his  Prehistoric  Nations,  says,  11  It  would  be  un- 
reasonable to  deny  or  doubt  that  in  ages  farther  back  in  tho 
past  than  the  beginnings  of  any  old  nation  mentioned  in  oui 


2H 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


sequent  editing  of  the  Book  of  Job,  his  friends 
are  said  to  be  from  countries  called  after  the 


ancient  histories,  Arabia  was  the  seat  of  a  great  and  influen- 
tial civilization.  This  fact,  so  clearly  indicated  in  the  remains 
of  antiquity,  seems  indispensable  to  a  satisfactory  solution  of 
many  problems  that  arise  in  the  course  of  linguistic  and  ar- 
chaeological inquiry.  It  is  now  admitted  that  they  were  the  first 
civilizers  and  builders  throughout  Western  Asia,  and  they  are 
traced  by  remains  of  their  language,  their  architecture,  and  the 
influence  of  their  civilization  on  both  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean. It  is  apparent  that  no  other  race  did  so  much  to  develop 
and  spread  civilization,  that  no  other  people  had  such  an  ex- 
tended and  successful  system  of  colonization,  that  they  seem  to 
have  monopolized  the  agencies  and  activities  of  commerce  by 
sea  and  land,  and  that  they  were  the  lordly  and  ruling  race  of 
their  time.  The  Arabians  were  the  great  maritime  people  of 
the  world  in  ages  beyond  the  reach  of  tradition.  As  Phoenicians 
and  Southern  Arabians  they  controlled  the  seas  in  later  times, 
and  they  were  still  the  chief  navigators  and  traders  on  the 
Indian  Ocean  when  Vasquez  di  Gama  went  to  India  around  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope."— Pp.  66,  67. 

From  Herodotus  we  learn  that  the  Phoenicians  came  from  the 
Erythraean  Sea,  which  he  explains  to  be  the  Persian  Gulf,  that 
having  crossed  over  from  thence  they  established  themselves  on 
the  coast  of  Syria  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  that  their  chief 
cities  were  Tyre  and  Sidon.  McCausland  says  they  were  once 
supreme  throughout  the  Mediterranean,  and  even  beyond  the 
pillars  of  Hercules.  Tyre  sent  forth  numerous  colonies  and 
founded  flourishing  commercial  communities  in  various  parts 
of  the  world.  Her  merchant  princes  spread  their  dominion 
over  Cyprus  and  Crete  and  the  smaller  islands  of  the  Archi- 
pelago in  their  vicinity.  They  also  made  settlements  in  Sardinia, 
Sicily,  and  Spain,  and  their  vessels  penetrated  as  far  as  the 
islands  of  Madeira  to  the  west,  and  to  the  British  Isles  and  the 
Baltic  on  the  north.  Traces  also  are  found  of  them  in  India, 
Ceylon,  and  onward  across  the  Pacific  to  the  shores  of  the  New 
World.    Carthage,  for  a  long  time  the  rival  of  the  Roman 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


215 


names  of  some  of  Abraham's  descendants. 
Names  which  did  not  exist  for  thousands  of 


Aryans,  was  the  most  flourishing  and  last  surviving  of  the 
Phoenician  colonies.  The  renowned  Hamilcar  and  Hannibal 
were  members  of  this  family,  also  Cadmus,  who  was  the  first 
to  introduce  letters  into  Greece,  and  Ninus,  the  just  and  wise 
king  of  Crete,  who  according  to  Thucydides,  was  the  first 
known  founder  of  a  maritime  empire. — McCausland's  Builders 
of  Babel,  pp.  53-55. 

That  the  Phoenicians  were  Shemitic,  and  not  Hamites,  is 
proven  by  their  language,  which  from  the  inscriptions  they 
have  left  is  manifestly  and  incontrovertibly  the  same  for  the 
most  part  and  in  every  case  with  what  is  familiar  to  the 
modern  student  as  Hebrew.  See  Gesenius's  Scripturce  Linguoeque 
Phcenicice  Monumenta,  where  that  distinguished  scholar,  as  Gale 
and  others  have  also  observed,  says  "  Omnino  hoc  tenendum 
est,  pleraqueet  paene  omnia  cum  Hebraeis  convenire,  sive  radices 
spectas,  sive  verborum  et  formandorum  et  flectendorum  ra- 
tionem." 

Rawlinson,  in  his  Essays  on  Herodotus,  Bunsen,  in  his  Phi- 
losophy of  Un.  History,  and  Wilkins,  in  his  Phoenicia  and 
Israel,  with  every  degree  of  confidence  assert  and  maintain 
that  the  Phoenicians  were  Shemites,  and  hence  of  the  Joklanic 
lineage.  Rawlinson  also  remarks  that  these  people  possessed 
"  a  wonderful  capacity  for  affecting  the  spiritual  condition  of 
our  species,  by  projecting  into  the  fermenting  mass  of  human 
thought  new  and  strange  ideas,  especially  those  of  the  most 
abstract  kind.  Shemitic  races  have  influenced  far  more  than 
any  others  the  history  of  the  world's  mental  progress,  and  the 
principal  intellectual  revolutions  which  have  taken  place  are 
traceable  in  the  main  to  them." — Herodotus,  p.  539. 

An  item  of  evidence  of  Melchisedec's  connection  with  this 
people  is  found  in  the  name  of  the  Deity  given  in  Gen.  14  :  18, 
where  the  God  of  Melchisedec  is  called,  not  Eloah  or  Elohim, 
but  Eliun,  which  is  the  Phoenician  designation  of  God  used  by 
Sanchoniathon,  the  Phoenician  sage,  from  whom  sundry  frag- 
ments have  been  preserved.    See  Kenriek's  Phoenicia,  p.  288. 


216 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


years  afterwards  are  in  like  manner  given  to 
the  country  about  the  Garden  of  Eden.  (Gen. 
2  :  11-14.) 

There  is  no  evidence  that  the  chief  river  of 
Palestine  bore  the  name  Jordan — River  of 
Dan — till  long  after  the  time  of  Moses  and 
Joshua,  and  yet  that  subsequent  Jewish  name 
is  everywhere  inserted  in  the  antecedent  rec- 
ords. And  so  Eliphaz  might  much  more  in- 
telligibly be  said  in  Moses'  time  to  have  been 
from  the  country  then  known  as  Teman,  and 
Bildad  from  the  country  then  known  as  Shuah, 
though  they  both  lived  and  occupied  those 
regions  hundreds  of  years  before  Teman  and 
Shuah  were  born.  There  may  also  have  been 
an  earlier  Teman  and  Shuah  whose  names 
others  long  after  them  in  some  way  inherited. 
The  original  name  of  the  territory  in  general 
is  preserved  in  the  designation  of  the  country 
of  Job  himself,  which  also  plainly  antedates 
the  Teman  and  Shuah  descended  from  Abra- 
ham. From  Stony  Arabia  to  Damascus,  along 
the  whole  east  of  Palestine,  the  country  is 
called  Uz.  The  more  precise  region  whence 
Job  came,  likely  was  that  portion  of  Arabia 
bordering  on  the  east  of  Edom,  south  of  Trach- 
onitis,  and  extending  indefinitely  towards  the 
Euphrates.     Uz  is  a  Shemitic  name,  called 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


21? 


Aws  in  the  Arabian  antiquities,  and  denotes 
the  region  where  Shem  himself  probably  lived 
and  died.*  Judging  from  chapter  8  :  8-10, 
and  12  :  12,  we  may  readily  believe  that  Job 
himself  saw,  heard,  and  often  consulted  Shem, 
and  got  his  sacred  wisdom  from  him.  In  the 
providence  of  God  he  in  a  measure  at  least, 
and  perhaps  by  special  call  and  ordination, 
took  Shem's  place  as  the  principal  representa- 
tive of  the  patriarchal  religion  after  Shem's 
death,  as  Abraham  subsequently,  whom  Mel- 
chisedec  blessed  and  consecrated  as  meant  to 
fill  this  office  after  him,  till  he,  of  whom  Mel- 
chisedec  was  the  illustrious  type,  should  come.f 

Job  and  Philitis. 

And  as  Melchisedec  and  Job  were  most 
likely  one  and  the  same  person,  so  the  same 
would  seem  to  be  the  PJiilition  of  Great  Pyra- 
mid notoriety.    Job  was  the  youngest  of  a 

*  "  Shem  appears  in  his  own  annals  as  one  who  had  left  his 
native  [original]  land,  and  in  the  course  of  ages  migrated  west 
and  south  from  the  primitive  common  seat  of  the  civilized 
stock  of  Central  Asia,  with  an  unceasing  tendency  towards 
Egypt." — Bunsen's  Univ.  Hist. 

f  This  would  give  us  a  most  remarkable  and  unbroken  suc- 
cession or  line  of  sacred  prophets  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world — Adam,  Seth,  Enoch,  Noah,  Shem,  Job,  Abraham  and 
the  rhosen  people,  terminating  in  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Church, 
which  abides  to  the  end  of  this  present  world. 


218 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


family  in  which  was  the  science,  faith,  and  en- 
terprise for  such  a  work,  beyond  all  others 
then  living.  Job  was  an  Arabian,  and  a  shep- 
herd prince,  just  as  the  Egyptian  fragments 
testify  respecting  Philitis.  Job's  account  of 
his  own  greatness,  doings,  and  successes,  de- 
picted with  so  much  beauty  in  chapter  29, 
grandly  harmonizes  with  Manetho's  story  of 
the  strange  power  of  the  Hicsos  over  the 
Egyptian  rulers  obtained  "  without  a  battle." 
He  held  idolatry  to  be  a  crime  punishable  by 
the  authorities  (chap.  31  :  26-28),  just  as 
Cheops  was  persuaded  while  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid was  building.  He  was  a  true  man  of  God, 
a  public  instructor  in  sacred  things,  with  whom 
Jehovah  communicated,  and  whom  the  Spirit 
of  God  inspired.*    The  Almighty  speaks  to 

*  Dr.  Lee  renders  chap.  29  :  7,  "  When  I  went  forth  from 
the  gate  to  the  pulpit  and  prepared  my  seat  in  the  broad  place  " 
Herder  translates  the  same, 

"  When  from  my  house  I  went  to  the  assembly, 
And  spread  my  carpet  in  the  place  of  meeting." 

In  verses  21-23,  there  is  a  further  allusion  to  his  addresses  to 
the  people,  and  the  reverence  and  eagerness  with  which  they 
listened  to  him. 

The  account  of  the  convening  of  "  the  sons  of  God,"  given 
in  the  first  chapter,  implies  the  existence  of  assemblies  for  wor- 
ship in  those  times,  and  the  giving  forth  of  instruction  on  those 
occasions. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


219 


him  in  chapter  38  as  if  he  were  the  identi- 
cal person  who  had  laid  the  measures  of  the 
Great  Pyramid,  stretched  the  lines  upon  it, 
set  its  foundations  in  their  sockets,  and  laid 
its  topstone  amid  songs  of  exalted  triumph* 
Chap.  19  :  23-27  looks  like  a  description  of 
the  high  intent  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  a 
prayer  that  it  might  endure  with  its  glorious 
freight  even  to  the  end  of  the  world.  And 
the  more  I  study  the  Book  of  Job  in  the  light 
of  its  author's  identity  with  the  mysterious 
Arabian  stranger  to  whom  the  Egyptians  at- 
tribute the  Great  Pyramid,  the  stronger  and 

*  The  spirit  of  the  passage  admirably  interprets  in  this  sense. 
The  object  is  to  convince  Job  of  his  incompetency  to  judge  of 
and  understand  God,  and  the  address  runs  as  if  the  Almighty 
intended  to  say  to  him,  "  You  laid  the  foundations  of  the  great 
structure  in  Egypt,  but  where  were  you  when  I  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  far  greater  pyramid  of  the  earth  ?  You  laid  the 
measures  on  the  pyramid  in  Egypt,  but  who  laid  the  measures 
of  the  earth,  and  stretched  the  line  upon  it  ?  You  fastened  down 
in  sockets  the  foundations  of  the  pyramid  in  Egypt,  but  where- 
upon are  the  foundations  of  the  earth  fastened  ?  You  laid  the 
pyramid's  completing  capstone  amid  songs  and  jubilations,  but 
who  laid  the  capstone  of  the  earth  when  the  celestial  morning 
stars  sang  together,  and  all  the  heavenly  sons  of  God  shouted  for 
joy?"  The  image  is  unquestionably  that  of  the  pyramid,  and 
the  appeal  is  best  interpreted  and  tenfold  intensified  on  the 
hypothesis  that  it  was  the  builder  of  that  pyramid  who  is  thus 
addressed.  This  would  also  give  adequate  reason  for  the  depar- 
ture from  the  idea  of  the  earth's  nature  and  position  given  in 
another  part  of  the  book,  to  take  up  the  image  of  a  pyramidal 
edifice  in  this  grand  passage. 


220 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


more  satisfying  to  me  becomes  the  likelihood 
that  here  is  the  mighty  prince  and  preacher 
of  Jehovah  from  whom  we  have  that  monu- 
ment. All  the  facts,  dates,  and  circumstances 
amply  accord  with  the  theory  that  "  Mel- 
chisedec  "  was  Job,  and  that  the  same  was  the 
"  Philition  "  of  Herodotus. 

But  whether  such  identity  can  be  estab- 
lished or  not,  the  effect  in  this  argument  is 
essentially  the  same.  If  these  three  names 
denote  three  distinct  persons,  they  all  belong 
to  the  time  of  the  Great  Pyramid's  erection 
and  to  the  same  general  community  or  class 
of  people.  They  were  all  shepherd  princes. 
They  all  hated  idolatry,  worshipped  the  true 
God,  and  fulfilled  a  sacred  mission  mostly 
before  Abraham  came  upon  the  stage.  And 
closely  related  to  them  were  others  of  the 
same  faith  and  spirit,  and  scarcely  inferior  in 
dignity.  Eliphaz,  and  Bildad,  and  Zophar, 
and  Elihu,  must  be  counted  with  them,  and 
of  thern  we  may  judge  from  what  we  read  and 
hear  of  them  from  the  Book  of  Job.  From 
all  these  together  we  get  an  impression  of  the 
age  and  communities  in  which  they  had  their 
homes,  and  what  sort  of  men  then  lived  and 
operated.    What  we  find  in  them  we  may  put 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


221 


down  as  characteristic  of  their  period,  and 
from  it  safely  reason. 

Results. 

We  thus  learn  what  is  indeed  of  very  great 
moment,  to  wit,  that  God  then  had  his  priests 
and  worshippers  upon  earth,  and  that  they 
were  the  most  princely,  learned,  and  command- 
ing people  living.  We  thus  learn  that  it  was 
God's  habit  to  converse  with  them,  to  direct 
their  ways  by  special  revelations,  and  to  in- 
spire them  for  the  utterance  and  recording  of 
his  mind,  will,  and  purposes.  We  thus  learn 
that  they  were  the  family  kindred  and  blood 
relatives,  the  same  in  language  and  country, 
with  those  whence  the  after  world  obtained 
all  the  original  elements  of  science  and  civil- 
ization. We  thus  learn  that  with  them  was 
the  competency  and  every  qualification,  both 
natural  and  supernatural,  for  the  erection  of 
just  such  a  monument  of  science,  theology, 
and  prophetic  history,  as  we  find  in  the  Great 
Pyramid.  Nay  more,  we  thus  learn  that  it 
was  the  subject  of  their  special  craving,  that 
their  words,  wisdom,  and  immortal  hopes 
should  be  engraven  with  pens  of  iron  in  im- 
perishable memorials  of  rock !  (Job  19  :  23- 
27.) 


222 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


No  matter  then  whether  Philitis,  Melchise- 
dec  and  Job  were  one,  or  two,  or  three ;  such 
mighty  men  of  Jehovah  there  were  in  that  far- 
off  age.  They  believed  in  one  God,  and  in 
holy  angels,  and  in  a  devil,  whose  subtle  de 
pravity  had  inoculated  all  natural  humanity. 
They  feared  sin,  and  sought  forgiveness  and 
salvation  through  bloody  sacrifice.  They 
hoped  for  a  coming  Redeemer,  and  for  resur- 
rection through  him.  They  treasured  the 
primeval  records,  traditions,  and  revelations 
from  Adam  down,  even  the  same  from  which 
Moses  compiled  when  he  framed  his  Genesis.* 

*  From  Luke  1  :  69,  70,  and  Acts  3  :  21,  we  learn  that  there 
were  sacred  prophets,  inspired  of  God,  from  the  earliest  begin- 
nings of  human  history.  Who  were  they?  Adam,  Seth, 
Enoch,  Noah,  and  Shem  were  most  eminent  among  the  prime- 
val worthies,  and  most  blessed  and  honored  of  God  of  all  the 
ancients ;  these  would  then  be  the  greatest  sacred  teachers,  and 
the  men  most  fitted  to  hand  down  accounts  of  the  things  they 
saw  and  had  learned  of  the  Lord.  The  indications  also  are 
that  they  did  severally  record  and  transmit  what  they  knew  and 
held  as  sacred,  and  that  Moses  in  making  up  the  Book  of 
Genesis  incorporated  these  sacred  heirlooms  into  his  records, 
weaving  them  into  one  narrative,  condensing,  adding  to,  but 
carefully  preserving  the  ancient  texts  which  he  employed. 
Hence  the  name  of  the  art  called  Mosaic  work.  Nor  would  it 
seem  impossible,  even  at  this  late  day,  to  point  out  what  parts 
of  the  holy  records  have  come  from  each. 

I.  If  we  take  Genesis  2  :  4,  on  to  the  end  of  the  third  chapter 
as  the  Book  of  the  Prophet  Adam,  it  at  once  assumes  a  life  and 
vividness  which  it  does  not  otherwise  possess.  Its  title  and 
contents  show  that  it  is  a  monograph.    Its  close  would  seem  to 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


223 


Special  communications,  teachings  and  impulses 
from  God  were  also  as  common  to  these  people 

indicate  the  time  when  it  was  written  and  its  probable  author. 
Certainly  no  one  was  so  well  qualified  to  write  it  as  Adam  him- 
self. And  if  he  wrote  anything,  it  must  above  all  have  been 
this.  Assuming  also  that  he,  and  not  Moses,  was  the  original 
narrator,  we  are  greatly  helped  with  regard  to  the  allusions  to 
ihe  topography  of  Eden,  which  doubtless  was  much  changed, 
at  least  in  the  apprehensions  with  which  men  looked  upon  the 
geography  of  the  earth  in  the  time  of  Moses,  from  what  it  was 
in  the  time  of  Adam.  Two  thousand  years  make  a  wonderful 
difference  in  the  statements  of  a  gazetteer,  even  with  regard  to 
the  same  localities.  The  account  of  the  temptation  and  fall 
also  becomes  more  intelligible  and  interesting  in  its  simplicity 
as  Adam's  own  statement,  than  as  that  of  so  remote  a  historian 
as  Moses.  The  name  for  the  Deity  {Jehovah  Elohim),  Jehovah 
God,  is  also  peculiar  to  this  one  section  of  the  divine  word. 

II.  Genesis  4:  1-26  is  again  a  distinct  monograph,  the  close 
seeming  to  indicate  the  author,  who  speaks  of  the  Deity  always 
under  the  name  Jehovah.  If  we  have  anything  from  Seth,  this 
is  the  section  above  all  others  that  would  fall  to  him.  It  is  per- 
haps only  the  conclusion  of  an  ampler  record  from  that  holy 
patriarch. 

III.  From  Enoch  we  certainly  have  at  least  a  fragment 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude,  beginning  at  verse  14. 
He  uses  the  name  of  Deity  the  same  as  Seth. 

IY.  From  Noah  we  would  seem  to  have  several  books,  the 
first  including  Gen.  5  :  1-32.  Its  title  shows  its  monographic 
character,  and  its  close  indicates  when  and  by  whom  it  was 
written.  It  denotes  the  Deity  exclusively  by  the  one  name 
(Elohim)  God. 

V.  A  second  Book  of  Noah  would  seem  to  be  Gen.  4  :  9-22; 
7  :  7-24 ;  8  :  1-19  ;  9  :  1-27.  None  was  so  competent  to  write 
this  account  as  he,  and  the  occurrences  are  so  wonderful  that  it 
could  hardly  be  otherwise  than  that  he  would,  as  a  preacher  of 
righteousness,  have  solemnly  recorded  this  momentous  account 
Its  end  is  indicated  by  a  change  in  the  name  denoting  tha 


224 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


as  to  Abraham  after  them.  (See  Job  4  :  12,13; 
6  :  10 ;  23  :  12  ;  33  : 14-16  ;  38  : 1  ;  42  :  5-7.) 

Deity  in  what  follows.  It  also  adds  greatly  to  the  life  char- 
acter of  the  narrative  to  take  it  as  from  the  hand  of  him  who 
was  the  most  deeply  concerned  in  the  matter. 

VI.  There  is  probably  a  third  Book  of  Noah,  in  the  form  of 
an  apocalypse  of  the  creation  work,  given  in  Gen.  1  :  1-31; 
2  :  1-3.  The  nature  of  this  revelation  was  quite  apart  from 
any  personal  experience  or  recollection,  and  could  as  well  have 
been  given  to  one  prophet  as  another.  The  form  of  designating 
the  Deity  (Elohim)  is  that  in  the  sections  which  appear  to  have 
come  from  Noah,  and  the  style  corresponds  to  those  sections  as 
to  no  other  portions  of  the  Bible.  It  is  a  complete  monograph 
in  itself,  and  can  be  best  conceived  by  referring  it  to  the 
prophet  Noah. 

VII.  Genesis  4  :  1-4,  6-8;  7  :  1-6;  8  :  20-22;  9  :  28,  29;  11  : 
1-9,  shows  quite  a  different  style  from  either  of  the  other  sec- 
tions. It  does  not  appear  as  a  continuation  of  the  Noachian 
narrative,  but  rather  as  fragments  of  an  independent  account, 
from  which  Moses  has  interwoven  parts  to  give  a  greater  ful- 
ness to  the  record  in  general.  It  designates  the  Deity  {Jehovah) 
the  same  as  Seth  and  Enoch,  and  not  as  either  Adam  or  Noah. 
The  author  evidently  lived  after  Noah,  though  personally 
familiar  with  the  affairs  attending  and  following  the  deluge. 
Therefore,  it  is  most  probable  that  we  have  these  fragments 
from  the  patriarch  Shem. 

VIII.  So,  Genesis  10 : 1-32  and  Genesis  11 : 10-26,  are  plainly 
monographs,  and  as  plainly  from  distinct  sources.  Had  Moses 
been  the  original  author  of  both,  the  one  would  have  been 
made  to  correspond  with  the  other,  and  we  would  have  had  one 
symmetrical  statement  of  the  genealogy,  continuous  and  di- 
gested. The  first  bears  internal  evidence,  amounting  almost 
to  certainty,  that  it  was  composed  by  Eber  from  his  own  per- 
sonal knowledge,  and  while  living  with  his  younger  son 
Joktan.  That  it  was  written  before  Sodom  was  destroyed  is 
proven  by  verse  19.  Had  it  been  written  by  Moses,  he 
would  not  have  said,  "  as  thou  goest  unto  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


225 


They  had  the  moral  and  intellectual  qualifica- 
tions to  furnish  the  sublimest  section  of  the 
holy  Scriptures.  There  was  no  superior  en- 
lightenment, no  higher  civilization,  no  purer 
faith,  no  truer  science,  no  more  intimate  farml- 
and Admah  and  Zeboim,"  but  t{  as  thou  goest  unto  the  Salt  Sea," 
as  in  Deut.  3  : 17  and  elsewhere.  The  genealogy  in  the  eleventh 
chapter  is  also  more  orderly  in  style,  and  was  most  likely  made 
up  by  Terah  or  Abraham,  from  information  handed  down  from 
father  to  son  in  the  family  from  which  he  was  himself  descended. 

It  would  be  presumption  to  speak  confidently  on  such  a  sub- 
ject, or  to  claim  that  this  is  beyond  mistake  the  authorship  of 
these  several  sections  of  the  sacred  word.  The  inspiration  of 
Moses  is  warrant  enough  for  all  of  them.  But  Moses  nowhere 
claims  to  have  been  the  original  author  of  these  records,  neither 
does  the  Scripture  assert  that  they  were  written  by  him.  On 
the  contrary,  it  tells  us  of  a  succession  of  inspired  men  from 
Adam's  time,  from  whom  we  have  nothing,  except  as  above  in- 
dicated. And  as  the  nearer  the  historian  lived  to  the  events 
which  he  relates,  the  more  satisfactory  his  account ;  if  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  these  documents  were  written  by  the  par- 
ties personally  concerned,  they  become  the  more  impressive, 
interesting,  and  easy  to  be  understood. 

It  is  at  least  interesting  to  take  the  Bible  and  read  the  several 
portions  as  above  assigned  to  Adam,  Seth,  Enoch,  Noah,  Shem, 
etc.,  in  order  to  see  what  life  and  spirit  these  records  take  on, 
when  viewed  in  a  way  which  is  at  once  so  probable  and  so 
fully  in  accord  with  other  statements  of  the  Scriptures. 

From  the  texts  in  Luke  and  Acts  it  is  clear  that  the  Gospel 
is  as  old  as  the  race,  and  that  there  never  was  a  time  when  it 
was  unknown  and  unsounded.  It  is  traceable  in  the  constella- 
tions of  the  heavens,  as  represented  of  old  ;  it  is  reflected  in  the 
traditions  and  mythologies  of  all  ancient  peoples,  and  in  every 
age  there  were  holy  prophets  who  treasured  the  divine  oracles, 
and  prophesied  and  taught  concerning  the  coming  and  achieve- 
ments of  Jesus  Christ,  and  "  the  restitution  of  all  things." 

15 


226 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


iarity  with  the  works  and  purposes  of  God, 
than  they  possessed.  And  a  princely  member 
of  their  mysterious  and  loving  brotherhood  it 
was  who  dwelt  in  Egypt  while  the  Great 
Pyramid  was  building.  Having  obtained 
peaceable  possession  of  the  king's  heart,  he 
induced  him  to  shut  the  temples,  punish  the 
priests,  cast  out  the  gods,  and  lend  his  royal 
co-operation  for  the  building  of  a  pillar  to 
Jehovah  of  hosts,  which  should  last  to  the 
end  of  time,  and  which  men  should  open  and 
read  in  this  last  evil  age,  and  know  that  it  is 
from  Him  who  is  about  to  judge  the  world  for 
its  apostasies. 

Thus  then,  by  a  chain  of  traditions,  facts, 
and  Bible  testimonies,  we  connect  the  origin 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  with  a  mighty  prehis- 
toric people,  wholly  separate  from  Egypt  and 
its  abominations, — a  people  among  whom  in- 
spiration, as  true  and  high  as  that  of  Moses, 
wrought,  and  from  whom  we  have  not  only  the 
noblest  of  the  sacred  books,  but  likewise  the 
noblest  edifice  on  earth,  equally  fraught  with 
holy  intelligence,  divine  truth,  and  inspired 
prophecy. 

What  have  we  then  in  this  unrivalled  pillar, 
but  A  Miracle  in  Stone — a  petrifaction  of 
wisdom  and  truth,  revealed  of  God,  preserved 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


227 


among  his  people  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  and  thus  memorialized  by  impulse  and 
aid  from  Him,  that  it  might  outlive  the  aposta- 
sies of  man,  and  stand  as  a  witness  to  the 
Lord  Almighty  when  he  cometh  to  judge  the 
world,  and  to  fulfil  his  promise  of  u  the  resti- 
tution of  all  things." 

Men  may  combat  and  scorn  a  conclusion  so 
sublime.  They  may  utterly  reject  it,  as  they 
also  rejected  Christ,  and  still  reject  his  salvation. 
But  it  involves  nothing  impossible — nothing 
improbable — nothing  but  what  we  might  rea- 
sonably expect  in  view  of  what  God  did  in 
ancient  times,  and  promised  to  the  fathers. 
It  is  agreeable  to  every  item  of  history  of 
which  we  can  avail  ourselves.  It  conforms  to 
the  remarkable  traditions  on  the  subject,  which 
cannot  otherwise  be  accounted  for.  Passages 
and  allusions  in  both  Testaments  imply,  if  they 
do  not  positively  declare,  that  it  is  a  thing  of 
God.  And  the  great  monument  itself  gives 
palpable  demonstration  of  what  cannot  be 
rationally  explained  on  any  other  hypothesis. 

Primeval  Man. 

Materialistic  and  skeptical  science  appears 
disposed  to  settle  upon  the  belief  that  man  is 
a  being  who  has  had  to  educate  himself  up  to 


228 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


what  he  is,  from  a  troglodyte,  if  not  from  some- 
thing much  lower.  Of  course  this  goes  against 
the  Scriptures,  and  sets  aside  as  fable  and 
mythic  superstition  all  the  most  essential  sub- 
stance of  the  Scriptures.  But  what  care  such 
scientists  for  that?  Such  consequences  to  a 
theory  they  take  rather  as  a  recommendation. 
But  no  such  philosophizing  can  stand  before 
the  Great  Pyramid.  If  the  primeval  man  was 
nothing  but  a  gorilla  or  a  troglodyte,  how,  in 
those  far  prehistoric  times,  could  the  builders 
of  this  mighty  structure  have  known  what 
our  profoundest  savants,  after  a  score  of  cen- 
turies of  observation  and  experiment,  have 
been  able  to  find  out  only  imperfectly  ?  How 
could  they  know  even  to  make  and  handle  the 
tools,  machines,  and  expedients  indispensable 
to  the  construction  of  an  edifice  so  enormous 
in  dimensions,  so  massive  in  its  materials,  so 
exalted  in  its  height,  and  so  perfect  in  its 
workmanship,  that  to  this  day  it  is  without  a 
rival  on  earth  ?  How  could  they  know  the 
spherity,  rotation,  diameter,  density,  latitudes, 
poles,  land  distribution,  and  temperature  of 
the  earth,  or  its  astronomic  relations  ?  How 
could  they  solve  the  problem  of  the  squaring 
of  the  circle,  calculate  the  n  proportion,  or  de- 
termine the  four  cardinal  points  ?    How  could 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


229 


they  frame  charts  of  history  and  dispensations, 
true  to  fact  in  every  particular  for  the  space 
of  four  thousand  years  after  their  time,  and 
down  even  to  the  final  consummations  ?  How 
could  they  know  when  the  Mosaic  economy 
would  start,  how  long  continue,  and  in  what 
eventuate  ?  How  could  they  know  wThen 
Christianity  would  be  introduced,  by  what 
great  facts  and  features  it  would  be  marked, 
and  what  would  be  the  characteristics,  career, 
and  end  of  the  Church  of  Christ  ?  How  could 
they  know  of  the  grand  precession al  cycle,  the 
length  of  its  duration,  the  number  of  days  in 
the  true  year,  the  mean  distance  of  the  sun 
from  the  earth,  and  the  exact  positions  of  the 
stars  at  the  time  the  Great  Pyramid  was  built? 
How  could  they  devise  a  standard  and  system 
of  measures  and  weights,  so  evenly  fitted  to 
each  other,  so  beneficently  conformed  to  the 
common  wants  of  man,  and  so  perfectly  har- 
monized with  all  the  facts  of  nature  ?  And 
how  could  they  know  to  put  all  these  things 
on  record  in  one  single  piece  of  masonry,  with- 
out one  verbal  or  pictorial  inscription,  yet 
proof  against  all  the  ravages  and  changes  of 
time,  and  capable  of  being  read  and  under- 
stood down  to  the  very  end  of  the  world  ? 
Yet,  these  things  they  did  know  !  Here 


230 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


they  are  in  solid  stone,  displayed  to  all  eyes, 
and  challenging  the  scrutiny  of  all  the  savants 
of  the  earth.  Men  may  sneer,  but  they 
cannot  laugh  down  this  mighty  structure,  nor 
scoff  out  of  it  the  angles,  proportions,  meas- 
ures, nature  references,  and  sacred  correspon- 
dences which  its  makers  gave  it.  Here  they 
are  in  all  their  speaking  significance,  stubborn 
and  invincible  beyond  all  power  to  suppress 
them.  Nothing  now  can  blot  out  this  record, 
and  on  it  is  written  the  true  Scriptural  dignity 
of  primeval  man,  fashioned  in  the  image  of 
his  Maker,  furnished  of  God  with  everything 
requisite  to  his  highest  life  on  earth,  and 
illumined  and  impelled  of  heaven  to  make 
this  memorial  of  his  sacred  possessions,  ere 
they  should  be  finally  lost  amid  the  ever-in- 
creasing deterioration.  It  is  a  record  whose 
antiquity  none  can  dispute,  whose  authenticity 
none  could  corrupt,  and  whose  readings  none 
can  construe  without  the  admission  of  a  Divine 
intervention  ! 

And  then  what  ?  Why  then  inspiration  is  a 
demonstrated  reality, — then  miracle  is  a  tangible 
fact, — then  the  foundations  of  infidelity  are 
dissolved, — then  the  Scriptures  are  true, — and 
then  our  Christian  faith  and  hopes  are  sure, 
AND  CANNOT  disappoint  us ! 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


231 


Wondrous  Providence  of  a  wondrous  God, 
to  have  planted  in  our  world  such  a  memorial 
as  this, — 

Building  in  stone  a  real  revelation, 

Which  in  Time's  fulness  has  at  last  been  read  1 

Use  of  the  Pyramid  respecting  Faith. 

It  is  not  a  substitute  for  our  glorious  Bible 
that  we  find  in  this  marvellous  pillar,  nor  a 
thing  to  be  put  on  equality  with  the  Scriptures, 
as  though  the  written  word  were  in  any  man- 
ner deficient.  We  throw  back  the  imputation 
that  we  would  propound  a  new  religion  with 
a  new  oracle.  Our  vaulting  scientists  have 
quite  monopolized  that  business.  The  world 
resounds  with  the  pratings  of  their  varied 
sects  and  schools,  agreeing  in  nothing  but  in 
negations  of  the  supernatural.  We  are  con- 
tent with  what  our  holy  books  record.  But 
when  a  sacrilegious  rationalism  would  emas- 
culate them,  and  an  Epicurean  philosophy 
would  trample  them  into  the  slough,  we  re- 
joice and  thank  God  that  before  he  gave  these 
books  he  caused  this  mighty  pillar  to  be  sta- 
tioned in  the  very  path  of  vaunting  science, 
that  his  assailed,  abused,  and  oft-bewildered 
children  in  the  extremity  of  the  ages  might 


232 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


be  able  to  appeal  to  it*  exultantly  for  monu- 
mental attestation  of  their  faith,  and,  amid 
the  wrinkles  and  infirmities  of  failing  Time, 
still  have  to  show  an  unfaded  memorial  of 
its  glorious  youth. 


Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  ;  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever 
shall  be,  world  without  end.  Amen. 


SUPPLEMENTAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

HE  rapidity  with  which  entire  edi- 
tions of  my  former  Lectures  on  the 
Great  Pyramid  have  been  exhausted, 
indicates  that  the  subject  is  deemed 
meritorious,  and  that  the  public  mind,  in  some 
good  degree,  is  disposed  to  consider  the  novel  but 
daily  strengthening  theory  of  the  divine  source 
and  sacred  message  of  that  marvellous  pillar. 
It  would,  therefore,  seem  to  be  due  that  another 
Lecture  should  now  be  added,  with  a  view  to 
some  further  discussion  of  sundry  points  touch- 
ing the  great  monumental  wonder,  particularly 
in  respect  of  what  has  transpired  on  the  sub- 
ject since  the  preceding  Lectures  were  pub- 
lished. Hence  this  Fourth  Lecture,  which  I 
propose  to  devote  to  a  series  of  observations 
of  a  somewhat  miscellaneous  character,  sup- 
plementary to  those  which  have  now  been  be- 
fore the  public  since  September,  1877. 


(  233  ) 


234 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


A  Few  Testimonies. 

It  is  with  gratitude  that  I  refer  to  the  nu* 
merous  testimonies,  publicly  and  privately 
given,  to  the  fitness  and  worth  of  the  presen- 
tations heretofore  made.  It  may  savor  of 
personal  vanity  to  rehearse  them  here,  but  it 
is  due  to  the  subject  that  some  of  them  should 
be  recited.  The  theory  to  which  these  efforts 
have  been  devoted  is  yet  so  new,  the  number 
of  those  disposed  to  make  light  of  it  is  so 
great,  the  prejudices  against  it  are  so  strong, 
the  desire  of  many  to  know  what  others  think 
is  so  reasonable,  and  the  implications  are  so 
momentous,  that  no  overweening  modesty 
should  keep  back  what  may  be  of  value  to  in- 
quirers, or  aid  in  promoting  an  appreciative 
examination  of  the  thrilling  proposition.  Cer- 
tainly, when  the  way  to  a  fair  hearing  of  the 
truth  is  to  be  cleared,  all  prudery  should  stand 
aside. 

It  is,  of  course,  of  the  first  importance,  in 
asking  men  to  form  a  judgment  on  such  a 
question  as  that  which  I  have  endeavored  to 
propound,  to  know  whether  the  facts  are  prop- 
erly stated  and  reliable.  So  long  as  there  is 
doubt  on  that  point  there  can  be  no  real  earn- 
estness in  the  matter.    It  is  only  when  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


235 


facts  are  truly  made  out,  that  the  obligation  is 
upon  the  human  mind  to  make  a  logical  and 
true  disposition  of  them.  As  to  the  correct- 
ness and  faithfulness  of  the  presentations  made 
in  my  former  Lectures  on  this  subject,  besides 
the  references  given  in  place,  and  the  means 
of  verification  more  or  less  within  the  reach 
of  all,  the  following  may  be  taken  as  of  some 
worth. 

William  B.  Whiting,  Commodore  in  the 
United  States  Navy,  writing  from  54  Prospect 
Avenue,  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  February  2d,  1878, 
in  connection  with  other  things,  to  which  I 
will  subsequently  refer,  says  : 

I  have  read  your  book,  A  Miracle  in  Stone,  with  profound 
attention,  as  well  as  interest.  I  am  not  able  to  criticize  or  test 
all  the  facts  asserted  therein ;  but,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  I  know 
most  of  them  to  be  correct. 

The  Episcopal  Register,  Philadelphia,  Oc- 
tober 13th,  1877,  bears  this  testimony: 

"We  have  ourselves  given  some  attention  to  the  subject,  and 
are  prepared  to  accept  certain  of  the  statements  contained  in 
the  volume  before  us — A  Miracle  in  Stone.  The  Pyramid  is 
certainly  a  great  mystery,  and  perhaps  it  was  left  for  this  age 
to  solve  it.  The  author,  in  the  new  work  under  notice,  relates 
the  general  facts  and  scientific  features. 

Prof.  Piazzi  Smyth,  Astronomer  Royal  for 
Scotland,  author  of  a  number  of  the  most  origi- 
nal and  profound  works  on  the  Great  Pyra- 


236 


A  MIRACLE  IN"  STONE. 


mid,  and  of  all  men  living  perhaps  the  best 
qualified  to  judge  in  the  case,  writing  from  15 
Royal  Terrace,  Edinburgh,  October  26th,  1877, 
among  other  things  says : 

I  beg  to  thank  you  for  your  book,  A  Miracle  in  Stone.  I 
have  read  now  every  word  of  it,  and  find  that,  whereas  it  shows 
you  to  have  got  a  more  thorough  and  practical  knowledge  of  the 
scientific  claims  of  the  Great  Pyramid  to  be  attended  to  by  the 
intellectual  of  the  present  age  than  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  out  of  a  thousand  who  talk  about  it,  it  shows  that  unex- 
ceptionable introduction  to  and  hold  of  the  subject  to  have  been 
blessed  to  you  by  a  more  vivid,  practical,  powerful  sense  of  the 
religious  message  of  the  Great  Pyramid  to  the  present  and 
coming  age  of  the  world  than  anything  I  have  ever  seen  mani- 
fested yet  in  any  Pyramid  writing  hitherto  produced  on  either 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Part  of  my  reading  yesterday  was  in  a  railway  carriage,  in 
foggy  wet  weather,  but  the  happiness  of  your  phrases,  the  just- 
ness of  your  conclusions,  the  flow  of  your  language,  but  far 
above  all  that  skill,  the  inexpressibly  high  value  which  you 
place  on  any  utterance  of  God,  whether  in  word  or  stone,  as 
compared  with  the  teachings  of  the  schools,  was  one  of  the  most 
enthusiastic  episodes  that  I  have  passed  through  for  a  long 
time ;  and  I  have  noted  several  points,  such  as  your  expla- 
nation— most  spiritual  as  well  as  symbolical — of  the  fifty-six 
ramp-holes  in  the  Grand  Gallery,  as  apparently  quite  new  in  the 
Pyramid  theory,  but  deserving  of  forming  a  part  of  it  hence- 
forward forever 

As  testimonies  to  the  force  of  the  facts  and 
arguments  contained  in  the  preceding  Lectures, 
I  take  the  liberty  of  presenting  also  a  few  ex- 
tracts from  notices  and  reviews  of  them  which 
have  been  given  to  the  public. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


237 


From  The  Visitor,  October  19th,  1877. 

The  distinguished  author  regards  the  Great  Pyramid  as  having 
been  built  by  divine  inspiration  in  the  far  ages  of  the  past;  and 
if  its  external  form,  lines  and  angles,  as  well  as  the  internal 
arrangements  are  correctly  described, — of  which  there  seems  to 
be  no  reason  to  doubt, — then  the  conclusions  at  which  the  writer 
arrives  appear  to  be  logical  and  nearly  irresistible,  though  not 
amounting  to  demonstration,  as  to  the  wonderful  knowledge 
of  the  builders  in  astromony  and  geometry ;  and,  what  is  of 
greatest  interest,  goes  far  towards  establishing  the  authenticity 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  not  one  book  of  which  was  written  until 
many  years  subsequent  to  its  erection,  thus  placing  them  be- 
yond the  cavils  of  modern  skepticism. 

The  book  is  well  suited  to  this  age  of  empiric  philosophy,  and 
of  science  falsely  so  called,  and  is  calculated  to  do  much  good. 
The  views  entertained  by  the  author  as  to  the  identity  of  Mel- 
chisedec  and  Job  may  possibly  be  regarded  as  somewhat  fanci- 
ful, and  at  variance  with  the  opinions  of  commentators  gener- 
ally, yet  nevertheless  have  an  air  of  much  plausibility 

From  The  Churchman,  January  19th,  1.878. 

We  are  glad  to  see  this  publication.  Probably  most  readers 
will  question  the  soundness  of  some  of  the  author's  inductions; 
but,  setting  aside  everything  of  a  doubtful  character,  there  is 
enough  left  to  startle  one  who  comes  to  the  subject  for  the  first 
time. 

The  same  argument  from  design  which  leads  us  to  believe 
that  the  world  had  a  personal  Creator,  warrants  the  belief 
that  the  Great  Pyramid  was  built  to  serve  as  a  monument  in 
stone,  not  only  of  the  most  important  mathematical  and  astro- 
nomical truths,  but  also  of  the  deeper  mysteries  of  God's  Reve- 
lation. We  cannot  follow  the  author  through  the  various 
chapters  in  which  he  traces  the  great  Great  Pyramid's  disclo- 
sures, but  there  is  ample  ground  for  something  more  than  con- 
jecture in  the  things  here  related.  The  harmony  which  is 
pointed  out  as  existing  between  them  and,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  truths  of  science,  and,  on  the  other,  those  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, cannot  have  been  altogether  the  result  of  chance. 


238 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


The  work  is  more  fascinating  than  any  romance.  Yet  it 
records  possibly  only  the  beginning  of  yet  more  wonderful  de- 
velopments to  follow  in  the  future.  What  was  once  only  an 
object  of  curiosity  for  travellers  has  become  the  subject  of  most 
intense  historical,  scientific,  and  religious  interest. 

From  The  Congregationalist. 

It  seems  that  the  Great  Pyramid,  on  being  subjected  to  a 
rigid,  scientific  examination,  without  and  within,  yields  a 
greater  number  and  variety  of  facts,  measurements,  and  other 
qualities,  which,  to  say  the  least,  are  singularly  coincidental 
with  other  facts,  measures,  and  qualities,  relating  to  religious 
history  and  other  departments  of  knowledge,  in  a  way  to  suggest, 
if  it  does  not  prove,  how  the  structure  may  or  must  have  been 
planned  by  some  mind  conversant  with  things  to  come  ;  so  lead- 
ing to  the  conclusion  that  the  architect  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  God  himself,  who  inspired  its  details,  as  he  did  those  of  the 
ark,  the  tabernacle,  and  the  temple,  and  sealed  up  in  its  dumb 
stones,  and  strange  passages  and  chambers,  an  attestation  of  the 
other  revelation  he  was  to  give  to  the  world  in  the  written 
book. 

The  whole  story  of  this  new  and  somewhat  startling  theory 
has  been  well  told  by  Dr.  S.,  who  has  written  with  the  English 
authorities  before  him.  To  those  fond  of  curious  research  and 
labored  calculations,  it  presents  an  exceedingly  interesting  sub- 
ject. Nor  can  we  refrain  from  saying  that,  after  all  possible 
pains  have  been  taken  to  avoid  an  excess  of  fanciful  interpreta- 
tion, there  remains  a  mass  of  incontestable  coincidences  which 
is  certainly  very  hard  to  explain  on  any  theory  of  the  edifice 
being  simply  a  tomb.  It  is  the  grand  symbol-work  for  the 
world. 

From  The  Episcoijal  Recorder,  January  2d,  1878. 

We  have,  in  this  book,  several  lectures  designed  to  explain, 
corroborate,  and  establish  certain  main  positions ;  and  those 
positions  are  startling,  and  challenge  the  most  careful  and 
earnest  study.  The  lecturer  seems  to  have  read  everything 
that  has  been  written  about  the  Great  Pyramid j  to  have 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


239 


weighed  every  conjecture,  opinion,  and  argument;  to  have 
consulted  history  and  prophecy  ;  to  have  corrected  science,  and 
to  have  discovered  an  epitome  of  all  natural,  ethnic,  and  spir- 
itual knowledge.  "We  hardly  know  which  is  the  greater,  the 
Pyramid  or  the  hook.  To  quote  any  striking  passage  as  a  speci- 
men of  the  work  would  require  a  transcription  of  the  whole, 
for  it  is  all  interesting,  and  one  of  the  most  readable  and  in- 
structive books  of  the  times.  "We  feel  confident  that  the  biblical 
student  who  reads  it  will  consult  it  frequently,  and  that  mate- 
rials enough  will  be  found  in  its  pages  to  furnish  adequately 
any  number  of  prize  essays,  lectures,  and  debates.  If  the  facts 
presented  are  established,  then  the  truth  is  confirmed  that  the 
builder  of  the  Great  Pyramid  was  the  greatest  and  most  fully 
inspired  man  of  the  human  race,  and  his  work  in  stone  as  truly 
a  work  of  God  as  the  pen-and-ink  works  of  Moses  and  Isaiah. 

From  The  Lancaster  Daily,  November  28th,  1877. 

This  view  of  the  Great  Pyramid  is  being  adopted  by  a  widen- 
ing circle  of  Christian  believers,  until  even  a  skeptic  scientist 
has  dignified  it  as  "  the  religion  of  the  Pyramid  I"  It  presents 
more  intrinsic  evidences  of  verity  than  things  which  have  for 
generations  commanded  the  devotion  and  aroused  the  enthu- 
siasm of  religious  credulity,  and  it  may  yet  come  to  be  an 
accepted  fact  in  the  divine  economy. 

These  expressions  and  others  at  hand,  most 
of  them  from  sources  of  the  highest  worth  for 
intelligence  and  candor,  sufficiently  indicate 
that,  in  dealing  wTith  this  subject,  we  are  hand- 
ling, not  only  a  legitimate  and  worthy  theme, 
but  one  of  serious  importance,  which  chal- 
lenges the  earnest  attention  of  philosophers 
and  divines,  and  which  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  order  fully  to  construe  the  history 
of  man  or  the  dispensations  of  God. 


240 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Adverse  Criticisms. 

But  it  is  not  hence  to  be  inferred  that  no 
adverse  judgments  have  been  given  upon  these 
presentations.  In  such  a  case  it  would  argue 
that  misapprehensions,  perversity,  prejudice, 
ill-affections,  and  foregone  conclusions  had 
ceased  to  influence  the  human  mind,  if  no  op- 
posing criticisms  had  been  called  forth. 

When  Prof.  Smyth  propounded  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh  the  earth-commensurated 
standard  and  system  of  linear  measure,  so  mar- 
vellously and  fully  symbolized  in  the  Great 
Pyramid,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  that  learned  association  felt  himself 
moved  to  put  a  summary  extinguisher  upon 
the  whole  thing.  To  accomplish  this  he  con- 
sented to  lay  aside  all  the  seriousness  and  dig- 
nity of  genuine  science,  and  betook  himself  to 
the  expedient  of  a  ridiculous  trick.  Before  the 
time  at  which  he  proposed  to  deliver  his  lec- 
ture of  reply  he  selected  a  hat,  the  brim  of 
which  measured  exactly  one-half  the  length 
of  the  pyramid  and  sacred  cubit,  had  it  placed 
upon  his  desk  by  an  assistant,  and,  when  the 
proper  moment  arrived,  proceeded  with  great 
gravity  and  unction  to  enact  the  farce  of  meas- 
uring it  before  the  audience.   Having  with  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


241 


utmost  precision  taken  its  dimensions,  he  tri- 
umphantly announced  it  just  the  twenty  mil- 
lionth part  of  the  earth's  'polar  axis,  and  hence 
arguing  all  the  high  and  inspired  science  in 
the  maker  of  that  hat,  which  is  claimed  for 
the  builders  of  the  Great  Pyramid  !  Of  course 
the  learned  baronet  brought  down  the  house, 
but  it  was  the  turning  of  the  halls  of  science 
into  the  stage  of  the  jesting  mountebank,  in 
order  to  heap  scorn  and  insult  upon  the  intel- 
ligence of  (in  any  view  of  the  case)  the  greatest 
monumental  builders  that  ever  lived.  And 
after  the  same  style  have  some  of  my  critics 
seen  fit  to  proceed.  Thus  a  popular  journal, 
specially  devoted  to  the  religious  edification 
of  the  young,  as  a  specimen,  perhaps,  of  its 
way  of  feeding  Christ's  lambs,  prints  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Many  of  the  conclusions  would  be  paralleled  by  assumption 
that  all  the  possible  combinations  of  the  engraver's  geometric 
lathe  were  miracuously  revealed  to  its  inventor;  all  the  mathe- 
matics of  the  sliding  rule  to  its  contriver,  or  the  whole  science 
of  trigonometry  to  the  man  who  first  conceived  a  plane  tri- 
angle. Given  a  true  pyramid,  and  a  multitude  of  subtle  theorems 
are  immediately  inherent,  which  are  indefinitely  increased  as 
the  pyramid  takes  one  or  another  limitation  in  shape;  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  all  the  theorems  were  miraculously  re- 
vealed to  the  architect.  If  so,  what  navigators  and  astronomers 
are  the  country  boys  who  make  their  own  spherical  base  balls  I 
And,  if  we  make  the  unit  of  measurement  only  small  enough, 

16 


242 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


how  many  harmonies  of  the  heaven  and  spheres  will  these  balls 
typify ! 

So  another  journal,  one  which  claims  to 
minister  to  the  higher  spirituality  in  religion, 
considers  the  whole  question  adequately  dis- 
posed of  by  this  illustration  : 

Take  a  hole  in  the  ground,  which  was  excavated  and  stoned 
round  you  know  not  when,  then  assume  that  this  hole  had  an 
astronomical  purpose,  and  proceed  to  find  a  time  when  some 
star  would  have  shone  straight  into  the  hole !  That  is  the  logic 
of  the  miracle-in-stone  theory. 

And  yet  another  religious  paper,  which 
loudly  assumes  to  itself  the  leadership  of  ad- 
vanced modern  thought,  says : 

The  symbolism  which  the  author  finds  in  the  construction  of 
the  great  monument,  could  be  found  by  the  same  process  in  the 
new  Chicago  custom-house,  or  any  other  building. 

It  is  questionable  whether  such  writers  com- 
prehend their  own  language,  much  less  the 
matter  which  they  have  undertaken  so  pertly 
to  dispose  of.  For  the  credit  of  human  intel- 
ligence I  am  glad  to  say  that,  out  of  more  than 
one  hundred  published  notices,  these  three 
have  the  eminent  distinction  to  themselves  of 
gravely  considering  the  pyramid  argument 
sanely  met  by  conceits  so  shallow.  As  Sir  J. 
Y.  Simpson's  hat  trick  reacted  to  his  own  dis- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


243 


credit  as  a  representative  of  science,*  whilst 
the  imperishable  facts  touching  the  Great 
Pyramid  went  on  making  converts  to  the  only 
theory  that  can  account  for  them ;  so  it  will 
ever  be.  People  are  mistaken  and  do  great 
injustice  to  themselves  when  they  think  to 
sneer  down  the  sublime  intellectuality  of  this 
hoary  monument  of  the  primeval  world ;  and 
these  comparisons  are  nothing  but  sneers  of  a 
very  low  order.  Just  illustrations  they  are 
not.  In  neither  of  them  is  there  the  slightest 
parallel  to  the  case  we  present.  "  These  spher- 
ical balls"  (?),  holes  in  the  ground,  or  other 
named  constructions,  must  first  be  accurately 
measured,  as  the  Pyramid  has  been,  and  proven 
to  contain  the  data  assumed  for  them,  or 
what  is  equivalent  to  the  actual  and  indis- 
putable facts  and  formulas  deduced  from  the 
Pyramid,  before  the  sort  of  conclusion  insin- 
uated can  with  any  soberness  be  entertained. 

*  Among  the  published  notices  of  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson's 
efforts  against  the  Pyramid  presentations,  we  find  the  follow- 
ing expressions: 

"  Sir  James  does  not  seem  to  have  proved  a  single  objection 
to  the  printed  theory,  and  his  whole  attack  shows  anything 
but  a  scientific  spirit.  It  is  a  pity  that  he  should  waste  his  time 
in  trying  to  disprove  a  subject  which  is  not  at  all  in  his  sphere, 
and  about  which  he  shows  himself  so  ill-informed,  having  neither 
had  time  nor  opportunity  thoroughly  to  examine  the  grounds 
and  foundation  of  the  Pyramid  and  its  teachings." 


244 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


I  do  not  undertake  argument  with  ridicule ; 
but,  when  it  is  put  forth  in  the  guise  of  logic, 
it  is  due  that  some  notice  should  be  taken  of 
it.  And,  from  the  temper  and  spirit  of  these 
writers,  it  may  be  safely  concluded  that,  when 
they  have  once  had  it  demonstrated  to  them 
that  the  objects  they  name  contain  but  a  hun- 
dredth part  of  the  coincidences  with  the  great 
facts  of  science  and  sacred  theology  shown  to 
be  embodied  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  every  man 
of  them  will  be  loud  in  claiming  and  proclaim- 
ing the  undoubted  supernatural  intelligence  of 
the  boys  who  made  the  "spherical  balls,"  the 
digger  who  shaped  that  hole  in  the  ground, 
and  the  architect  who  designed  the  form  and 
measures  of  Chicago's  new  custom-house,  albeit 
these  things  came  into  being  under  all  the 
light  and  intelligence  of  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, whilst  the  Great  Pyramid  was  made  and 
finished  four  thousand  years  ago,  at  a  time 
when  the  knowing  ones  of  our  day  assert  that 
men  had  no  implements  but  chipped  flints, 
and  no  dwelling-places  but  dens  and  caves  of 
the  earth.* 

*  One  of  these  journals,  however,  gives  a  further  specimen  of 
its  wit  in  disposing  of  this  case,  by  propounding  a  measure-test 
of  the  brain-calibre  of  the  Lecturer.  The  delectable  morsel  is 
in  these  words  : 

"  The  size  of  the  author's  intellect  may  be  inferred  from  his 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


245 


The  Verdict  of  "Not  Proven." 

Several  of  the  reviews,  which  have  other- 
wise spoken  respectfully  of  these  Lectures, 

horror  of  the  French  metric  system,  because  its  inventors  were 
atheists!  We  suppose  that  he  carefully  investigates  the  theo- 
logical soundness  of  his  baker  and  milkman." 

If  this  writer  had  given  us  sound  reasons  why  we  should  not 
have  regard  to  the  theological  soundness  of  all  people  with 
whom  we  have  to  do,  we  would  possess  at  least  one  item  of  wis- 
dom from  him.  And  if  his  mark  and  evidence  of  intellectual 
greatness  is,  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  theology  and  religion 
of  the  inventors  of  the  French  metre,  it  is  no  mortification  to 
us  to  fall  below  his  standard,  inasmuch  as  the  Word  of  God 
has  some  rather  uncomplimentary  expressions  touching  the 
wisdom  of  people  with  such  affinities.    Psalms  14  or  53  :  1. 

The  courtly  editor  would  have  left  us  room  to  assign  him  a 
less  limited  degree  of  candor  and  fidelity  to  truth,  had  he  stated 
the  real  points  we  made  against  the  French  Metrology  (pp. 
58-60),  instead  of  citing  a  mere  incidental  fact  in  the  case, 
which,  however,  as  we  think,  ought  to  be  as  little  recommen- 
datory to  him  as  to  us. 

The  real  objections  to  the  French  metric  system,  which  he 
admits  to  have  originated  in  atheism  (in  which  we  believe  the 
baking  of  bread  and  the  serving  of  milk  did  not  originate),  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  following  statements,  which  we  repeat  for 
the  common  benefit: 

I;  It  is  unscientific,  notwithstanding  its  great  pretensions 
to  science. 

(1.)  It  is  founded  on  a  curved  line  instead  of  a  straight  one — 
follows  a  circumference  for  a  measure  of  length  instead  of  an 
axis  or  diameter. 

(2.)  It  is  based  on  the  particular  meridian  of  Paris,  no  more 
fitting  than  any  other  meridian,  and  the  measurement  of  which 
differs  from  that  of  other  meridians  just  as  much  entitled  to  be 
taken  for  such  a  purpose,  for  instance  the  Russian,  and  the 
British  Indian,  which  have  been  measured  as  well  as  that  of  Paris. 


246 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


have  summed  up  their  conclusions  concerning 
them  in  the  words  "  not  proven."    What,  and 

(3.)  It  is  inaccurate  and  untrue,  as  now  admitted,  by  one  too 
little  in  every  5300  parts. 

(4.)  It  is  utterly  meaningless  and  unharmonious  with  nature, 
as  well  in  its  unit  as  in  its  fractions  and  multiplications. 

II.  It  is  inherently  inconvenient. 

(1.)  It  fits  to  nothing,  demanding  a  thorough  reconstruction 
of  ideas  on  an  arbitrary  fancy. 

(2.)  It  is  bi-lingual  in  its  terminology,  taking  its  names  from 
languages  incapable  of  ready  understanding,  except  to  classical 
scholars,  who  have  the  least  use  for  it. 

(3.)  Its  terms  are  cumbrous,  long,  jaw-breaking,  and  hard  to 
be  learned  and  remembered. 

(4.)  Its  unit  of  length  is  unstridable  and  incapable  of  any 
natural  measurement. 

III.  It  is  offensive  in  its  religious  and  theological 
relations,  except  to  infidels  and  unbelievers. 

(1.)  It  is  the  furthest  from  the  scriptural  and  sacred  system 
of  weights  and  measures  of  all  systems  on  earth. 

(2.)  It  is  the  national  characteristic  of  the  only  nationality 
that  ever  officially  denied  the  divine  existence. 

(3.)  It  affiliates,  at  least  in  some  degree,  with  the  buying  and 
selling  "  mark  of  the  Beast,"  which  is  connected  with  very 
serious  divine  judgments.    See  Kev.  13  :  16  ;  20  :  4. 

IV.  We  have  a  better  system  already — a  system  more 
truly  and  significantly  founded  in  nature,  which,  with  certain 
slight  and  easy  corrections,  from  the  memorializations  of  the 
Great  Pyramid — that  great  monument  of  the  primeval  wis- 
dom— would  constitute  a  system  of  metrology  the  most  ancient, 
the  most  expressive,  and  the  most  accurate,  beneficent,  and  easy, 
that  is  at  all  known  among  men. 

V.  The  adoption  of  the  French  system  by  us  would 

BE    PRACTICALLY    AND    PROFOUNDLY    OPPRESSIVE.     It  WOUld 

cause  a  century  or  more  of  confusion  and  trouble,  and  disable 
all  our  present  records,  and  much  of  our  literature  also,  to  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


247 


how  much,  they  severally  include  in  this  ver- 
dict, does  not  appear.  If  the  meaning  is,  as 
seems  to  be  intimated  in  one  or  two  instances, 
that  the  question  of  identity  between  Job-ab 
and  Job,  or  between  Job  and  Melchisedec,  or 
between  Job,  Melchisedec,  and  Philitis,  is  not 
convincingly  made  out,  it  was  gratuitous  to 
say  so,  as  I  had  not  affirmed  such  a  proposition 
as  certainly  true,  or  as  a  necessary  part  of  my 
argument.  Remarkable  coincidences  and  pos- 
sibilities were  somewhat  discussed  touching 
this  point,  but  with  the  distinct  suggestion  that 
nothing  is  rested  on  it  except  to  prove  that 
men  of  these  sublime  qualities  and  relations 
did  live  in  the  period  of  the  Great  Pyramid's 
building,  and  that  hence  it  was  not  impossible, 
but  is  quite  probable,  that  the  same  was  built 
under  the  direction  of  "  the  sons  of  God,"  and, 

after  generations,  requiring  translation  into  other  terms  to  be 
understood.  Even  the  necessary  little  change  from  old  style  to 
new  style  in  the  calendar  still  embarrasses  betimes,  though 
made  so  long  ago.  This  change  of  metres  would  necessarily 
touch  all  our  charts,  surveys,  land  records,  dispensatories,  pre- 
scription books,  and  formulas  of  arts  and  manufactories,  entail- 
ing upon  the  people  expenditures,  losses,  and  inconveniences  be- 
yond estimate  for  generations  together,  for  which  nothing  but 
this  cumbrous  atheistic  fancy  is  given  in  return.  The  Anglo- 
Saxon  world  should  hesitate  long  before  plunging  itself  into 
such  a  turbulent  sea  of  revolution  and  folly. 

If  this  evidences  a  deficiency  of  brain-size  we  are  willing  that 
those  who  think  so  should  make  the  most  of  it. 


248 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


if  so,  under  the  tuition  and  guidance  of  God 
himself.* 


*  It  is  to  me  a  matter  of  regret,  that  writers  on  the  Pyramid 
are  putting  it  forth  as  a  doctrine,  not  only  that  Philitis  certainly 
is  the  same  as  Melchisedec,  which  is  highly  probable,  but  that 
Melchisedec  was  not  a  man,  but  u  he  who  talked  with  Moses  in 
the  mount,  who  walked  with  Shadrach,  Mesheck,  and  Abed- 
nego  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace  of  fire,  viz.,  the  Son  of  God," 
merely  in  the  appearance  of  a  man.  This  introduces  a  matter 
quite  unnecessary  to  the  Pyramid  theory,  and  one  so  thoroughly 
questionable  and  extravagant  in  itself,  that  it  can  work  only 
disadvantage  to  the  argument.  It  is  plausibly  argued  by  some 
that  Melchisedec,  who  is  so  mysteriously  and  yet  so  honorably 
mentioned  in  the  Bible,  was  "  the  Son  of  God  in  human  form," 
and  his  meeting,  feeding,  and  blessing  of  Abraham,  one  of  the 
numerous  Theophanies  referred  to  in  the  Scriptures.  But  that 
has  never  yet  been  proven.  If  Melchisedec  was  a  Theophany, 
it  bears  none  of  the  features  of  the  undisputed  Theophanies. 
Melchisedec  is  scripturally  affirmed  to  be  "  like  unto  the  Son  of 
God,"  which  would  very  strongly  imply  that  he  was  not  the 
Son  of  God  himself,  but  only  a  type  of  him,  and  hence  a  man, 
as  the  common  English  version,  whether  with  warrant  or  not, 
affirms  that  he  was.  It  is  hard  to  understand  that  "  this  man  " 
should  carry  bread  and  wine  to  Abraham,  and,  as  an  earthly 
priest-king,  take  from  the  patriarch  a  tenth  part  of  the  earthly 
spoils  of  war,  and  consent  thus  "to  be  ministered  unto,"  if  he 
was  the  Son  of  God,  and  not  a  human  being.  There  is  no  cor- 
responding case  in  all  the  recorded  Theophanies,  which  are 
claimed  as  "  numerous."  And  if  it  is  to  be  accepted  that  Mel- 
chisedec was  11  the  Son  of  God  in  human  form,"  it  necessarily 
weakens,  if  it  does  not  totally  destroy  the  supposition  that  Mel- 
chisedec was  Philitis,  the  shepherd  prince,  to  whom  the  build- 
ing of  the  Pyramid  is  ascribed.  For  then  we  will  have  on 
hand  a  proposition  so  extraordinary  and  difficult  to  maintain, 
as  to  be  quite  outside  of  all  probability.  (1.)  The  Theopha- 
nies were  all  of  very  brief  continuance ;  but  Melchisedec,  if  he 
was  Philitis,  must  have  continued  and  ministered  on  earth  for 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


249 


So  again,  if  the  meaning  is,  that  the  various 
doctrines  entering  into  a  sound  theology,  as 

at  least  forty  years.  The  Pyramid  and  its  preliminary  works 
alone  occupied  thirty  years,  during  all  of  which  time  Philition, 
or  Philitis,  kept  his  flocks  about  the  place  in  the  ordinary  habit 
and  condition  of  a  shepherd  king.  To  these  thirty  years  we 
must  add  the  time  required  for  the  gathering  of  his  company 
and  the  national  arrangements  in  Egypt  in  order  to  begin  the 
work,  together  with  the  time  consumed  in  the  migration  to 
Palestine,  the  building  of  Jerusalem,  and  what  interval  there 
may  have  been  from  the  settlement  in  Jerusalem  to  the  meeting 
of  Abraham.  This  would  give  us  a  Theophany  for  the  building 
of  a  memorial  in  stone,  at  least  seven  times  as  long  as  Christ's 
earthly  ministry  for  the  salvation  of  the  world,  which  is  hardly 
credible  without  the  strongest  sort  of  evidence.  (2.)  The  ordi- 
nary divine  method,  in  all  analogous  cases,  is  the  selection, 
equipment,  and  commissioning  of  real  men  as  the  agents  and 
ministers  of  God.  God  did  not  assume  a  form,  and  appear  as 
an  earthly  administrator,  in  giving  us  the  Book  of  Revelation. 
He  did  not  write  it  himself,  but  chose  and  inspired  men  for  the 
purpose.  Why  not  the  same  in  the  stone  record?  It  was 
through  the  mediate  ministry  of  Moses  and  Aaron  that  God 
wrought  Israel's  deliverance,  and  gave  them  their  institutions. 
The  work  of  salvation  itself  was  not  wrought  but  through  the 
mediateness  of  a  true  human  nature.  The  planting  of  the 
Church  and  the  ministration  of  the  Gospel  and  its  benefits  was 
and  is  through  the  agency  of  men.  And  however  divine  or 
great  the  work,  it  is  always  through  some  human  instrumen- 
tality, employed  and  endowed  for  the  purpose.  Why,  then, 
without  positive  proofs  to  that  effect,  should  we  risk  an  impor- 
tant cause  by  assuming  and  teaching  that  it  was  different  in  the 
case  of  the  Pyramid?  (3  )  It  was  just  as  easy,  and  far  more 
in  accord  with  analogy,  to  make  the  Great  Pyramid  everything 
which  it  is  now  found  or  claimed  to  be,  by  an  ordinary  opera- 
tion, like  that  which  led  and  influenced  the  prophets  in  their 
work,  as  for  the  Son  of  God  to  assume  "  the  form  of  man,"  and 
to  live  and  operate  as  a  shepherd-king,  architect  and  priest  for 


250 


A  MIRACLE  IX  STONE. 


named  in  the  Lectures,  are  "  not  proven  "  by 
the  analogies  and  indications  described,  I  fully 
agree  with  the  statement.  These  doctrines 
repose  for  their  truth  on  quite  another  basis, 
and  are  proven  from  quite  another  source. 
The  point  was  not  to  show  their  truth  or  credi- 
bility, but  that  accepting  them  as  the  substance 
of  the  Scripture  Revelation,  a  clear  and  striking 
correspondence  to  them  may  be  found  in  the 
Great  Pyramid,  just  as  we  might  naturally  ex- 
pect if  it  is  what  I  take  it  to  be.  The  numer- 
ous instances  which  I  pointed  out,  and  which 
I  know  not  how  men  can  honorably  get  rid 
of,  are  not  given  as  proofs  of  these  doctrines ; 
but,  the  fact  that  they  exist,  and  may  be  so 
vividly  traced  in  the  great  monument,  is 
brought  out  first  in  the  interest  of  exegetical 
science,  and  second  as  furnishing  strong  reason 
to  suspect  that  the  Booh  which  teaches  these 
doctrines,  and  the  Pyramid  which  so  wonder- 
fully harmonizes  with  them  though  built  so 
long  in  advance,  have  both  come  from  one  and 
the  same  source. 

Supposing  God  to  have  caused  such  a  me- 
morialization  of  any  portion  of  his  works  and 


the  space  of  some  three  dozen  years  on  earth.  (4.)  If  such  a 
thing  had  been,  it  is  unaccountable  that  we  should  have  no  more 
record  of  it  than  appears  in  the  brief  references  to  Melchisedec. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


251 


purposes,  as  claimed  for  the  Great  Pyramid,  it 
is  reasonable  to  infer  that,  as  in  the  Bible  so 
here,  He  would  have  respect  to  the  whole  story 
of  Revelation,  which  is  just  as  easy  to  Him  as 
any  part  of  it.  If  the  whole  story  were  not 
traceable,  at  least  in  its  main  facts  and  fea- 
tures, the  presumption  would  be  against  the 
idea  of  His  having  been  concerned  in  it.  And 
so,  on  the  other  hand,  when  it  is  shown  that 
the  whole  story  is  so  truly  and  fully  indicated 
in  the  Pyramid's  symbolisms,  the  presumption 
fairly  is  that  the  Pyramid  is  from  the  same 
intelligence  from  which  we  have  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

But  the  meaning  of  these  reviews  rather 
seems  to  be,  that  the  whole  presentation,  as 
respects  the  new  theory  concerning  the  Great 
Pyramid,  is  "not  proven."  This  presents  a 
serious  judgment  for  us,  as  no  one  wishes  to 
entertain  for  truth  what  has  no  reasonable 
foundation.  The  question  then  comes  up, 
What  is  sufficient  proof  in  a  case  like  this? 
No  Christian  will  say  that  the  thing  is  impos- 
sible ;  and  considering  the  circumstances,  and 
how  God  aided  and  directed  in  other  construc- 
tions of  human  handiwork,  no  one  can  reason- 
ably say  that  it  is  improbable.  It  therefore 
depends  very  much  upon  the  particular  moral 


252 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


condition  of  the  mind  that  undertakes  to  de- 
cide upon  the  matter,  as  to  what  is  adequate 
proof  and  what  is  not.  To  the  Atheist,  the 
evidences  of  the  existence  of  a  personal,  al- 
mighty, and  intelligent  God,  are  deemed  in- 
adequate and  unconvincing.  To  the  Deist, 
the  evidences  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  are  rejected  as  inadequate.  To  the 
Arians,  the  evidences  of  the  co-equal  and  co- 
eternal  three-oneness  of  the  Deity  are  set  aside 
as  inadequate.  To  the  Jew,  the  evidences  of 
the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  of 
the  plan  of  salvation  through  him,  are  scorned 
as  utterly  inadequate.  To  a  Socinian,  the 
evidences  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement  by  the 
blood  of  Christ, — to  the  Universalist,  the  evi- 
dences of  future  and  eternal  punishment, — and 
to  many,  the  evidences  of  a  life  to  come  and 
the  immortality  of  the  soul, — are  all  deemed 
inadequate.  On  all  these  and  other  points, 
great  bodies  of  men,  who  make  every  claim  to 
intelligence,  candor,  and  sobriety,  write  down 
as  their  ultimate  conclusion,  "not  proven." 
And  yet,  every  true  and  orthodox  Christian 
holds  each  and  every  one  of  these  things  am- 
ply made  out,  with  a  clearness  and  certainty 
on  which  he  rests  with  unshaken  confidence 
for  this  world  and  the  next.    The  answer  he 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


253 


makes  to  all  classes  of  these  unbelievers  is, 
that  they  do  not  start  with  right  principles, 
that  they  are  not  open  to  the  force  of  truth 
and  fair  argument,  that  they  decide  on  imper- 
fect and  unreasonable  grounds,  that  they  wish 
to  believe  as  they  do,  and  hence  are  not  willing 
to  take  in  anything  else. 

It  is  a  saddening  truth,  but  still  a  truth, 
that  the  source  of  the  skepticism  of  the  unbe- 
lieving, however  honest  they  may  seem,  is  not 
in  the  inadequacy  of  the  evidence  on  which  to 
build  a  true  faith,  but  in  some  traditional  prej- 
udice, or  personal  perverseness,  or  unfaithful- 
ness of  examination,  or  unreasonable  standard 
of  proof,  or  unconquerable  averseness  to  the 
truth,  or  unwarrantable  pride  of  position  or 
estate,  that  stops  the  ears  and  beclouds  the 
judgment.  The  everlasting  challenge  of  the 
Saviour,  on  which  he  stakes  the  whole  credi- 
bility of  the  Gospel,  is,  "  If  any  man  will  do 
the  will  of  the  Father,  he  shall  know  of  the 
doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God."  (John  7:17.) 
So  that  we  are  fully  warranted,  by  the  unmis- 
takable word  of  the  great  Author  of  salvation, 
in  saying,  that  the  true  and  only  reason  why 
people  cannot  find  the  convincing  evidences  of 
all  that  enters  into  the  make-up  of  the  proper 
Christian  religion  is,  that  they  are  morally  un- 


254 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


willing  to  test  it  by  those  methods  of  proof  on 
which  it  proposes  to  demonstrate  its  claims. 
And  if  such  are  the  causes  that  lead  so  many 
to  regard  the  evidences  of  our  holy  religion,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  inadequate,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered that  many,  from  corresponding  causes, 
should  withhold  belief  in  the  case  before  us. 
The  skepticism  of  unbelievers  is  not  held  good 
by  Christians  as  against  the  divine  authority 
of  Christianity,  or  any  of  its  doctrines;  and  as 
the  verdict  of  "  not  proven"  does  not  ade- 
quately settle  the  question  in  that  case,  so 
neither  does  it  adequately  settle  it  in  this. 

Were  it  shown  us  wherein  the  argument  for 
the  supernatural  origin  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
fails  in  method  or  degree  from  that  on  which 
we  repose  our  common  faith  as  Christians,  this 
verdict  of  "  not  proven"  could  be  more  intelli- 
gently considered.  But  no  one  yet  has  se- 
riously attempted  to  point  out  any  such  defect. 
On  the  contrary,  the  editor  of  The  Churchman, 
viewing  the  matter  with  the  keen  scrutiny  of 
a  broad  and  penetrating  consideration,  and 
with  the  manly  dignity  of  one  who  feels  the 
far-reaching  character  of  the  problem  and  of 
the  manner  of  dealing  with  it,  gives  it  out  as 
his  conviction,  which  at  the  same  time  comes 
as  a  note  of  solemn  warning  to  all  believers, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


255 


that  "  the  same  argument  from  design  which 
leads  us  to  believe  that  the  world  had  a  personal 
Creator,  warrants  the  belief  that  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid was  built  to  serve  as  a  monument  in  stone, 
not  only  of  the  most  important  mathematical  and 
astronomical  truths,  but  also  of  the  deeper  mys- 
teries of  God's  Revelation."  In  so  far  then  as 
this  judgment  is  correct,  the  dissenter  has  his 
only  logical  outcome  in  Atheism. 

Something  is  Proven. 

But  this  verdict  of  "  not  proven/'  which  a 
few  have  seen  fit  to  return  as  the  only  answer 
needing  to  be  made  to  the  presentations  re- 
specting the  Great  Pj  ramid,  not  only  fails  on 
the  one  hand  to  specify  what  it  holds  to  be 
"not  proven/'  but  it  assumes  on  the  other  that 
nothing  is  proven  of  any  worth  to  science  or 
faith,  or  requiring  to  be  seriously  considered. 
It  is  thus  either  mere  blind  assertion  or  a  very 
unworthy  begging  of  the  question.  Some  things 
have  been  proved  as  fully  and  as  surely  as  any- 
thing can  be.  They  are  also  very  important 
things,  bearing  on  all  the  questions  respecting 
humanity  and  revelation,  and  involving  mo- 
mentous implications  for  philosophy,  history, 
and  religion.    And  whether  they  necessitate 


256 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  precise  conclusion  that  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  built  under  the  direction  of  some  inspired 
man  of  God  or  not,  the  facts  remain  clear  and 
unalterable,  and  nothing  is  true  or  sound  in 
human  thinking  which  cannot  be  construed 
with  them.  Investigators  may,  betimes,  have 
been  a  little  too  quick  and  extreme  in  their 
interpretations,  and  some  may  here  and  there 
have  shown  slight  signs  of  partial  intoxication 
amid  the  wonders  of  discovery  on  discovery 
which  have  rewarded  their  endeavors;  but, 
with  due  allowance  for  everything  of  this  sort, 
there  remains  a  great  mass  of  facts,  hard  and 
solid  as  the  rock  on  which  the  vast  structure 
stands,  from  which  the  answer  of  "not  proven" 
must  rebound  very  damagingly  upon  those 
who  propose  to  abide  by  it. 

It  is  needless  to  recapitulate  here  the  scien- 
tific data  already  described  (though  with  some 
disabling  brevity)  in  the  preceding  Lectures. 
All  that  is  there  stated  respecting  the  geomet- 
rical, cosmical,  astronomical,  metrical,  geo- 
graphical, and  mechanical  features  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  and  very,  very  much  more,  has  been 
amply  tested  by  the  very  best  scientific  ability, 
and  may  be  seen  fully  set  out  in  all  their  in- 
vincible wonderfulness  in  the  more  thorough 
works  which  are  happily  multiplying  on  this 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


257 


subject.  The  world  may  safely  be  challenged 
to  refute  these  grand  facts,  whether  they  be 
put  down  as  coincidences  or  aught  else.  They 
are  proven,  and  they  must  stand,  whatever 
men  may  make  of  them.  And  every  attack 
upon  them  thus  far  has  only  served  to  bring 
them  out  with  more  clearness,  and  with  ever- 
increasing  recruits  for  their  defence. 

There  can  be  no  question  now  as  to  the  fact 
that  the  form  and  relative  dimensions  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  exhibit  practically  the  circle 
squared,  or  that  it  is  built  to  the  mathematical 
proportion  of  a  diameter  to  a  sphere.  The 
length  of  its  four  sides  is  the  exact  equal  of  a 
circle  drawn  with  the  Pyramid's  vertical  height 
for  a  radius  (see  Chart).  In  other  words,  it 
is  an  architectural  embodiment,  in  a  solid  stone 
edifice,  of  the  mathematical  tf,  the  value  of 
which,  in  determining  the  relation  of  a  sphere 
to  its  diameter,  is  3.14159  plus  a  slight  incom- 
mensurable fraction.  When  this  was  first  dis- 
covered, and  announced  as  something  very  sig- 
nificant, the  answer  was  that  the  measures 
were  not  sufficiently  attested  to  warrant  the 
acceptance  of  it  as  a  fact ;  and  that,  if  it  had 
this  appearance,  it  was  a  mere  coincidence  or 
accident  from  which  nothing  can  be  argued. 
Since  then  the  measurements  have  been  more 

17 


258 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


narrowly  and  fully  determined,  and  the  va- 
rious commensurations,  within  and  without, 
more  exactly  ascertained ;  but  every  fresh  ad- 
dition to  our  knowledge  on  the  subject  has 
contributed  to  the  overwhelming  demonstra- 
tion that  the  Pyramid  is  really  a  memorial  of 
the  7T  proportion,  and  that  this  is  the  grand 
key  to  much  of  its  import.  What  is  solidly 
given  in  the  external  dimensions  meets  us 
again  wherever  we  go  in  the  interior.* 


*  Thus,  if  we  take  the  length  of  the  King's  Chamber,  412.132 
inches,  and  let  it  express  the  diameter  of  a  circle,  then  compute 
the  area  of  that  circle,  and  throw  that  area  into  a  square,  it  will 
give  the  exact  size  of  the  Pyramid's  base,  and  just  as  many- 
Pyramid  cubits  to  each  side  as  there  are  days  in  a  year. 

Again,  take  the  same  length  as  the  side  of  a  square,  find  its 
area,  throw  it  into  a  circular  shape,  and  the  radius  of  that  circle 
will  give  the  number  of  cubits  in  the  Pyramid's  vertical  height. 

Again,  take  the  circuit  of  the  north  or  south  wall  of  the 
King's  Chamber  in  the  entirety  of  the  granite,  divide  it  by  that 
chamber's  length,  and  the  result  is  n. 

Thus,  by  substituting  areas  for  circumferences,  that  oblong, 
rectangular  room,  through  the  operations  of  ?r,  answers  intel- 
lectually to  the  square-based  and  five-pointed  exterior  memo- 
rialization  of  the  same  proportion.  And  in  the  Antechamber, 
between  the  Grand  Gallery  and  the  King's  Chamber,  the  same 
use  and  reference  to  the  w  proportion  is  to  be  traced. 

Thus  the  east  wainscoating  of  the  Antechamber  is  cut  down 
to  the  extent  of  half  the  width  of  the  King's  Chamber,  equal  to 
the  length  of  the  granite  in  the  Antechamber  floor,  and  to  the 
length  of  the  side  of  a  square  whose  area  is  equal  to  that  of  a 
circle  drawn  with  the  whole  length  (granite  and  limestone)  of 
the  floor  for  a  radius. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


259 


It  therefore  pertains  to  scientific  men  to  say 
what  is  to  be  made  of  all  this.    Will  they  say 

Again,  the  entire  length  of  the  Antechamber  floor,  multi- 
plied by  7r,  gives  the  exact  number  of  days  in  a  year. 

Again,  the  number  of  cubic  inches  contained  in  the  granite 
leaf  which  hangs  across  the  Antechamber,  measured  to  the  edges 
of  the  dressed  surfaces,  is  10,000  sr. 

So,  likewise,  in  the  Queen's  Chamber,  the  height  of  that  sig- 
nificant niche  in  the  east  wall,  multiplied  by  10  tt,  gives  the 
Pyramid's  vertical  height. 

Also  that  niche,  to  its  inner  long  shelf,  multiplied  by  10 
gives  the  Pyramid's  base-side  length. 

Also  the  square  root  of  ten  times  the  height  of  one  of  the 
Queen's  Chamber  end  walls,  divided  by  the  height  of  the  niche, 

iS  7T. 

So,  again,  the  lengths  of  the  first  ascending  passage  and  the 
Grand  Gallery  added  together,  or  the  total  of  ascending  line, 
divided  by  v7  gives  the  length,  as  far  as  it  has  thus  far  been 
measured  or  calculated,  of  the  entrance  passage  from  the  origi- 
nal surface  to  the  first  ascending  passage. 

The  thirty-sixth  horizontal  course  of  stones  in  the  structure 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  is  remarkable  for  being  nearly  double  the 
thickness  of  the  courses  immediately  below  it.  The  base  of  that 
peculiar  course  is  just  ten  times  the  height  of  the  Antechamber  ; 
and  the  distance  from  the  vertical  centre  of  the  edifice  to  the 
nearest  point  of  either  side  at  that  height,  divided  by  10,  gives 
the  number  of  days  in  a  year,  and  the  same  divided  by  the  ver- 
tical height  of  that  point  is  or  the  proportion  of  the  diameter 
of  a  circle  to  its  circumference. 

So,  again,  in  the  Coffer,  there  comes  out  the  same  irrepres- 
sible v.  The  height  of  the  Coffer  is  to  the  length  of  its  side  and 
end  as  1  to  tt.  The  Coffer's  depth,  multiplied  by  the  area  of  one 
of  its  long  sides,  is  jr.  A  circle,  with  the  breadth  of  the  Coffer's 
base  for  a  diameter,  or  a  square,  with  the  depth  of  the  Coffer, 
gives  the  external  area  of  one  of  its  long  sides,  divided  by  ir. 

So,  again,  in  the  interrelations  of  the  several  main  parts  of 
the  Pyramid  as  a  whole,  the  King's  Chamber,  and  the  Coffer.  In 


260 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


it  is  mere  accident,  and  just  happened  so  ?  As 
well  might  they  pronounce  the  placement  of 
the  figures  in  the  multiplication  table  an  acci- 
dent. Will  they  say  it  was  part  of  the  com- 
mon science  of  the  period  ?  Then  how  came 
there  to  be  not  another  vestige  or  trace  of  it  in 
all  the  world  for  three  thousand  years  but  in 
this  one  single  memorial  ?  There  are  dozens 
of  other  pyramids  in  Egypt,  and  massive  re- 
mains in  various  countries,  dating  to  a  very 
remote  antiquity,  and  why  does  no  trace  of  it 
appear  anywhere  in  any  of  them  ?  The  new 
theory  on  this  subject  fully  explains  all  the 
facts,  and  if  we  are  not  to  accept  that  theory 


each  of  these  three  one  rule  governs  the  shape  of  each,  namely, 
the  two  principal  dimensions  added  together  are  <r  times  the 
third.  The  Pyramid's  length  and  breadth  thus  equal  w  height ; 
the  King's  Chamber  length  and  height  equal  a  breadth;  the 
Coffer's  length  and  breadth  equal  n  height. 

All  these  and  numerous  other  such  propositions  have  been 
thoroughly  worked  out  by  competent  mathematicians,  and,  any 
one  able  to  perform  the  necessary  operations,  needs  only  to  refer 
to  the  actual  measurements  in  order  to  verify  all  for  himself. 
Indeed,  men  might  as  well  undertake  to  deny  that  the  Pyramid 
exists  as  to  deny  the  ascertained  and  demonstrable  omnipresence 
and  constant  use  of  these  mathematical  ideas  in  its  construction 
and  arrangements.  The  discoverers  and  demonstrators  of  these 
facts  are  Mr.  James  Simpson,  Mr.  St.  John  Vincent  Day,  Prof. 
H.  L.  Smith,  Captain  Tracy,  K.A.,  John  Taylor,  Prof.  Smyth, 
etc.  Many  of  the  facts  are  given  in  Johnson's  New  Universal 
Cyclopedia,  article  "  Pyramid,"  and  in  the  last  edition  of  Our 
Inheritance  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  by  Prof.  Smyth,  1877. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


261 


it  devolves  on  those  who  reject  it  to  give  us 
something  else  that  will  explain  them. 

It  is  also  a  fact,  that,  the  more  science  be- 
comes sure  and  accurate  in  its  enunciations, 
the  closer  do  they  come  to  the  indications  in 
the  Great  Pyramid.  A  remarkable  instance 
of  this  has  recently  occurred  with  reference  to 
the  problem  of  the  sun-distance. 

By  observations  of  the  transit  of  planets,  from 
the  lunar  irregularities,  by  experiments  touch- 
ing the  velocity  of  light,  and  from  perturba- 
tions in  the  courses  of  the  "heavenly  bodies, 
very  many  ,attempts  have  been  made  to  reach 
a  solution  of  this  problem.  In  1824,  Encke 
gave  the  distance  as  95,370,000  miles,  and  his 
estimate  has  been  most  generally  received. 
For  some  years,  however,  his  figures  have  been 
regarded  by  scientists  as  from  1  to  2i  millions 
of  miles  too  high,  and  the  expectation  has  been 
that  the  universal  and  expensive  arrangements 
for  the  observation  of  the  transit  of  Venus  in 
1874  would  furnish  the  data  requisite  to  settle 
the  matter.  The  full  results  of  these  observa- 
tions, made  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, and  with  the  most  refined  astronomi- 
cal apparatus,  have  not  yet  transpired;  but 
they  are  beginning  to  come  out,  and  altogether 
more  favorably  to  the  Pyramid  indications, 


262 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


which  give  the  mean  sun-distance  as  91,840,000 
miles.  The  English  estimate,  which  Prof.  R. 
A.  Proctor  pronounces  "  a  satisfactory  one," 
now  stands  at  92,600,000  miles,  a  reduction 
from  the  old  estimate  of  2,770,000  miles  nearer 
to  the  Pyramid  indications.  In  France,  M. 
Puiseaux,  who  has  bestowed  very  great  and 
laborious  attention  to  the  subject,  and  who  feels 
confident  that  he  cannot  be  more  than  a  few 
hundred  miles  in  error,  puts  down  the  most  re- 
cent estimate  of  the  sun's  distance  at  91,840,270 
miles,  or  759,730  miles  still  nearer  to  the 
Pyramid  indications,  and  actually  within  270 
miles  of  the  exact  Pyramid  figures !  On  the 
announcement  of  this  result,  the  French  paper, 
Les  MondeSy  very  justly  exclaimed,  "La  Grande 
Pyramide  a  vaincu" — The  Great  Pyramid  has 

CONQUERED  ! 

A  very  interesting  fact  has  also  been  brought 
to  my  knowledge  by  Commodore  Whiting.  In 
the  communication  to  which  I  have  already  re- 
ferred, that  learned  gentleman  writes  me  con- 
cerning the  desirableness  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
as  a  meridional  zero  for  the  universal  computa- 
tion of  longitude,  and  says  :  "  My  friend,  M.  F. 
Maury,  whom  I  succeeded  in  command  of  the  U. 
S.  Observatory  at  Washington,  was  probably  the 
greatest  geognost  in  the  world.    His  attention 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


263 


was  directed  to  the  nether  or  lower  meridian. 
The  English,  and  all  nations  using  the  Eng- 
lish language  and  charts,  compute  their  longi- 
tude from  Greenwich,  the  French  from  Paris, 
the  Spanish  from  Cadiz,  the  Russians  from 
Cronstadt,  etc.,  adopting  these  as  the  initiatory 
meridians  of  their  respective  charts,  and  180 
degrees  therefrom  as  the  nether  meridian.  In 
sailing  around  the  world  (so  common  nowa- 
days), persons  going  west  lose  a  day  in  their 
calendar,  and  persons  going  east  gain  a  day, 
so  that  circumnavigators,  to  prevent  the  con- 
fusion of  dates  that  would  otherwise  obtain, 
drop  a  day  in  the  latter  instance,  and  dupli- 
cate one  in  the  former  when  crossing  the  nether 
meridian.  Different  nations  having  different 
nether  meridians  creates  confusion,  and  Maury 
said  all  nations  ought  to  agree  .on  a  common 
nether  meridian.  The  English,  French,  Span- 
ish, Russian,  etc.,  all  have  their  nether  me- 
ridian to  pass  over  inhabited  portions  of  the 
earth,  so  that  persons  but  a  few  feet  apart,  if 
upon  different  sides  of  the  nether  meridian, 
would  have  different  calendars,  and  to  the  one 
it  would  be  Monday  while  to  the  other  it  would 
be  Sunday;  and  Maury  sought  for  a  general 
nether  meridian  that  would  be  free  from  this 
disadvantage.   Such  a  meridian  he  pronounced 


264 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


to  be  about  that  degree  west  of  Greenwich, 
which  is  the  exact  nether  meridian  from  the 
Great  Pyramid.  He  thus  clearly  designated 
the  meridian  of  the  Great  Pyramid  as  the 
proper  initiatory  meridian  for  the  world."  It 
was  an  unconscious  designation — a  conclusion 
reached  without  any  thought  or  knowledge  of 
any  relation  between  it  and  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid,— and  it  is  another  instance  in  which  the 
best  results  of  the  best  science  bring  us  back 
to  what  was  immortally  embodied  in  that  won- 
derful pillar  of  four  thousand  years  ago.* 

*  Some  have  thought  that  I  made  a  great  blunder  when  1  said 
(page  70),  that  "  the  Great  Pyramid  stands  on  the  line  which 
equally  divides  the  surface  of  the  northern  hemisphere."  A 
man  high  in  place,  and  all  his  life  having  practically  to  do  with 
science,  wrote  me:  "It  is  a  mistake  so  gross  that  I  think  it 
must  be  either  a  misprint,  or  a  slip  of  the  pen."  He  said  "the 
paragraph  evidently  should  read,  that  the  Pyramid  is  built  on 
the  latitude  which  marks  the  third  distance  from  the  equator  to 
the  pole,  as  the  half  distance  is  about  forty-five  degrees,  nearly 
one  thousand  miles  from  the  Pyramid  at  the  nearest  point."  I 
replied  that  I  had  not  spoken  of  a  meridian  of  distance  from 
the  equator  to  the  pole,  but  of  "  the  surface  of  the  northern 
hemisphere  " — the  whole  surface  of  the  earth  north  of  the  equa- 
tor. I  also  submitted  to  him,  and  other  ready  mathematicians, 
the  following  problem  :  What  'parallel  of  latitude  equally  divides 
the  entire  earth  surface  [land  and  water)  lying  between  the  equa- 
tor and  the  pole?  requesting  its  solution  by  the  best  scientific 
processes,  and  to  give  me  word  of  the  result,  if  it  did  not  tally 
with  my  statement.  I  had  not  thoroughly  worked  out  the 
problem  myself ;  but  as  the  lines  of  longitude  all  terminate  in 
a  point  at  the  pole,  and  the  earth  itself  is  very  considerably  flat- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


265 


Adverse  Inquiries. 

But  few  of  the  notices  of  these  Lectures  at- 
tempt any  argument  on  the  subject.  It  was 
not  to  be  expected  that  they  should.  Several 
points,  however,  have  been  made,  to  which  it 
may  be  desirable  to  allude. 

A  prominent  and  pervading  objection  in  a 
number  of  the  adverse  judgments  given  is,  that 
the  whole  presentation  is  too  fanciful  for  belief 
If  by  this  is  meant  that  what  is  stated  for  fact 
is  nothing  but  the  work  of  an  enthusiastic 
imagination,  we  can  only  pity  the  uncandid- 
ness  and  flippancy  of  those  who  make  the  as- 
sertion, and  appeal  to  the  records  of  explorers 


tened  in  its  polar  diameter,  I  concluded,  on  a  rough,  estimate, 
that  about  the  thirtieth  degree  from  the  equator  would  give  the 
line  sought.  More  than  five  months  have  passed  since  I  sub- 
mitted the  problem  for  thorough  mathematical  solution,  but  no 
reply  has  yet  come  to  indicate  any  error  in  my  statement. 

It  may  also  be  worth  while  to  note  here  that  Commodore 
Whiting  is  of  opinion  that  the  fact  that  the  Great  Pyramid  is 
situated  a  little  below  the  thirtieth  degree  of  north  latitude,  is 
perhaps  meant  to  refer  to  the  ellipticity  of  the  earth,  and  to 
mark  just  one-third  of  the  line  of  its  meridian  from  the  equator 
to  the  pole.  For  those  who  wish  to  work  on  this  suggestion  I 
give  the  results  of  observations  upon  the  exact  latitude  of  the 
Great  Pyramid,  viz.  : 

M.  Xouet's  observations  make  it  29°  59'  67/. 

Piazzi  Smyth's,  with  Playfair  instrument,  29°  58'  51". 

Shifting  westward  to  avoid  low  ground,  29°  597  127/. 


266 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  investigators,  which,  if  not  to  be  credited, 
leaves  nothing  on  which  to  believe  that  the 
Great  Pyramid  exists.  I  claim  to  have  given 
facts,  not  fancies;  and  it  is  that  wonderful 
array  of  facts  that  men  are  now  called  on  to 
deal  with.  My  inferences  from  those  facts 
may,  perhaps,  be  faulty  and  illogical,  but  that 
can  only  be  fairly  determined  by  a  full  can- 
vassing of  the  facts,  and  first  obtaining  a  com- 
plete and  appreciative  understanding  of  them, 
which  cannot  be  the  case  with  those  who 
superciliously  dismiss  the  whole  matter  as 
nothing  but  romance  and  fable. 

Nor  should  we  forget  that  it  is  a  very  old 
and  familiar  thing  for  people  petulantly  to 
brand  as  silliness  and  lunacy  whatever  un- 
pleasantly cuts  into  their  old  round  of  think- 
ing, or  unwelcomely  disturbs  their  pleasant 
ease.  It  is  a  cheap  way  of  getting  over  what 
would  otherwise  be  inconvenient.  It  was  after 
this  fashion  that  the  Jews  set  aside  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  and  that  many  of  Paul's  hearers 
spoke  of  him.  And  so  the  early  Christians, 
as  a  class,  stand  registered  in  the  annals  of 
Pagan  Rome.  But  were  these  fanatics  ?  Was 
their  cause  that  crazy  thing  which  so  many 
were  pleased  to  regard  it?  Were  the  people 
who  so  disposed  of  it  the  just^  sober,  and  wise 


A  MIRACLE  IX  STONE. 


267 


ones  in  acting  thus  ?  Do  not  all  believers,  who 
have  since  lived,  unite  in  holding  them  very 
blameworthy  and  unreasonable  ?  A  thing  is 
not  a  wild,  fanatical  conceit,  because  some 
may  treat  it  as  such.  When  a  serious  subject 
presents  itself,  it  argues  very  unfavorably  for 
people,  without  examination,  to  pooh-pooh  it 
as  nonsense.  True  philosophers  and  candid 
inquirers  for  the  truth  never  proceed  after  that 
fashion.  And  if  men  would,  indeed,  exemplify 
the  superior  sense  and  moderation  which  they 
are  so  facile  in  assuming  to  themselves  as  their 
particular  monopoly,  they  have  need  of  a  goodly 
degree  more  of  reserve  than  some  have  shown 
in  their  offhand  characterizations  of  the  fair 
and  honorable  efforts  of  their  equals  to  gain 
attention  to  a  great  subject. 

One  publication,  generally  appreciative  and 
just,  propounds  the  question:  "If  all  that  is 
said  of  the  superior  intelligence  embodied  in 
the  Great  Pyramid  is  true,  how  is  it  that  four 
thousand  years  had  to  pass  away  before  a 
hierophant  of  the  sacred  mystery  appeared?" 
We  might  ask  the  same  question  with  regard 
to  the  wonders  of  steam  and  electricity,  the 
circulation  of  the  blood,  the  uses  of  stone-coal, 
and  a  hundred  other  things  more  naked  and 
open  to  the  view  of  universal  man  for  nearly 


268 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


six  thousand  years  than  the  Pyramid  has  been 
to  anybody,  except  within  the  past  few  hundred 
years.  How  is  it  that  no  one  ever  appeared 
until  so  recently  to  tell  us  what  was  before  all 
eyes  unread  and  unsuspected  for  such  scores 
of  centuries?  So,  also,  infidelity  asks,  Why 
did  not  Christ  come  with  bis  alleged  light  and 
salvation  till  after  four  thousand  years  of  apos- 
tasy and  darkness  were  allowed  to  roll  their 
weary  ages  over  the  race  ?  Such  a  question 
at  best  is  wholly  out  of  place  as  against  facts 
duly  ascertained;  for  facts  proven  must  be 
admitted,  whether  we  can  explain  them  or 
not.  Besides,  in  the  case  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, a  vital  part  of  the  theory  is,  that  the  in- 
tent in  its  building  was  to  set  up  a  prehis- 
toric monument,  which  should  pass  unrecog- 
nized as  to  its  object  through  all  the  ages  of 
history,  in  order  to  disclose  its  message  in  the 
last  period  of  this  world,  and  by  its  marvel- 
lous testimonies  to  confound  and  leave  with- 
out excuse  the  blatant  unbelief  and  ruinous 
skepticism  foreseen  and  foretold  as  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  last  times.  It  found  no 
interpreter,  because  it  was  part  of  the  inten- 
tion that  it  should  have  none ;  and  because, 
according  to  its  purpose,  it  would  have  been 
out  of  time  and  place  to  have  one  till  the 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


269 


period  for  which  its  great  message  was  meant 
had  arrived. 

In  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  in- 
tent another  paper  inquires  :  "Granting  every- 
thing the  author  says,  if  the  human  intellect 
had  not  first  found  out  all  these  truths,  how 
could  he  ever  find  them  in  the  Pyramid?" 
This  inquirer  is  at  fault  in  assuming  that 
everything  claimed  to  be  symbolized  in  the 
Great  Pyramid  has  been  found  out  by  "  the 
human  intellect."  Some  of  these  things  are 
purely  subjects  of  divine  revelation  as  con- 
tained in  the  Scriptures.  With  this  correction 
I  am  very  free  to  admit  that,  without  the 
Bible  to  put  me  in  possession  of  the  doctrines 
and  prophecies  therein  presented,  and  without 
the  results  attained  by  modern  science,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  read  anything  in  the 
Great  Pyramid  which  is  now  found  there.  But 
a  man's  inability  to  read  the  Bible  does  not 
prove  it  empty  of  truth.  Neither  does  a  man's 
ability  to  read  what  is  there  prove  that  its 
contents  are  from  the  unaided  human  intel- 
lect. So  in  this  case,  though  science  be  re- 
quired to  read  and  understand  the  science  sym- 
bolized in  the  Great  Pyramid,  the  spirit  of 
inspiration  may  still  have  been  necessary  to 
put  that  science  there — seeing  that  it  was  put 


270 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


there — before  the  days  of  science.  The  point 
is,  not  that  miraculous  inspiration  alone  could 
teach  man  the  truths  pertaining  to  the  physi- 
cal universe,  but  that  the  framing  of  so  com- 
plete and  comprehensive  a  monument  of  those 
truths  before  modern  science  began  to  be,  and 
before  the  human  intellect  had  at  all  found 
them  out,  argues  the  efficient  presence  of  a 
superhuman  Intelligence,  and  so  furnishes  a 
demonstration,  in  science's  own  field,  of  the 
reality  of  miraculous  inspiration,  which  science 
in  its  pride  is  now  disposed  to  question  and 
deride.  It  is  an  argument  addressed  to  science, 
and  hence  requires  the  presence  of  science; 
and,  until  human  science  was,  and  had  come 
out  of  its  babyhood,  of  course  the  address  could 
not  be  delivered  nor  understood,  as  neither 
was  it  needed. 

As  I  understand  the  Great  Pyramid,  and 
the  true  way  of  viewing  it,  it  is  not  so  much 
to  acquaint  the  world  with  scientific  truths 
otherwise  unknowable,  but  to  show,  as  those 
truths  begin  to  be  known,  that  they  were 
memorialized  on  earth  by  men  chosen  and 
inspired  for  the  purpose  before  mere  human 
science  could  possibly  find  them ;  that  men, 
having  monumental  evidence  of  this  fact,  might 
not,  in  their  vain  conceit,  exalt  themselves 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


271 


against  their  Maker,  disown  Providence,  deny 
revelation,  and  undertake  to  rule  the  Almighty 
out  of  His  universe.  It  is,  in  my  understand- 
ing, not  so  much  to  give  us  new  revelations  as 
to  furnish  monumental  substantiation  of  old 
ones,  of  which  the  prophets  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  have  spoken,  and  which  the  per- 
versities of  this  age  are  persuading  mankind 
to  surrender,  explain  away,  deny,  or  otherwise 
to  put  aside  for  a  profane  homage  to  a  new 
Juggernaut,  bearing  the  fascinating  name  of 
Progress. 

But,  says  another,  "If  the  Pyramid  was 
built  with  so  thorough  a  knowledge  of  geog- 
raph}7,  astronomy,  science,  and  theology,  as 
now  supposed,  what  became  of  it  in  subsequent 
ages  ?  It  is  strange  that  we  find  no  traces  of 
such  attainments  in  aftertimes  among  the 
Chaldeans,  Assyrians,  Phoenicians,  Greeks,  or 
the  Egyptians  themselves.  The  Copernican 
system  was  not  accepted,  even  by  the  most  ad- 
vanced thinkers,  until  more  than  three  thou- 
sand years  afterwards.  Could  a  system  so 
simple,  so  beautiful,  and  so  easily  demonstrated 
to  be  correct,  ever  have  been  lost  to  the  world 
after  it  was  once  clearly  understood?" 

I  thank  this  writer  for  the  positiveness  with 
which  he  affirms  the  total  absence  of  any  trace 


272 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  such  science  as  is  now  being  read  from  the 
Great  Pyramid  in  all  the  records  of  the  time 
and  for  thousands  of  years  afterwards,  save  in 
this  marvellous  pillar.  It  is  the  truth,  and  a 
most  significant  truth.  The  writer  alleges  it 
as  a  sort  of  a  'priori  reason  for  not  crediting 
any  of  these  reports  about  the  high  science 
embodied  in  the  Pyramid ;  but  it  is  really  one 
of  the  foundation-stones  on  which  its  highest 
claims  repose. 

Whether  the  Great  Pyramid  really  does 
witness  to  the  superior  science  claimed  to  be 
embodied  in  it,  is  a  question  which  must  be 
determined,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  on  its  own 
independent  evidences.  If  this  alleged  wisdom 
is  proven  to  be  there,  the  fact  must  stand, 
whatever  other  conclusions  it  may  necessi- 
tate, or  however  it  may  transcend  the  thoughts 
and  beliefs  of  the  nations  then  and  for  thirty 
centuries  succeeding.  If  it  is  there,  it  is  there, 
and  all  the  a  priori  reasoning  in  the  world  can- 
not make  it  otherwise.  And  there  it  most 
certainly  is.  There  is  the  most  evident  merao- 
rialization  of  the  wonder-working  mathemati- 
cal ?r.  There  is  the  most  evident  notation  of 
the  rotundity  and  rotation  of  the  earth,  its 
annual  revolution  around  the  sun,  its  mean 
distance  from  the  sun,  its  mean  temperature, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STOXE. 


273 


its  weight,  its  diameter,  its  land  distribution, 
and  the  exact  way  every  part  of  it  lies  with 
regard  to  the  four  cardinal  points.  There  is 
the  most  evident  notation  of  the  true  year,  of 
the  grand  precessional  cycle,  and  of  the  proper 
beginning  and  length  of  both.  Every  one 
living  and  capable  of  comprehending  these 
particulars  can  read  and  trace  them  there  in 
the  various  measures,  pointings,  angles,  and 
counts,  as  readily  as  he  can  work  the  com- 
monest arithmetic  rules,  or  demonstrate  the 
theorems  of  geometry,  or  read  the  constella- 
tions. None  of  these  things  were  truly  known 
to  any  nation  of  the  time,  or  for  a  score  and 
a  half  of  centuries  thereafter.  Until  the  days 
of  modern  science  there  is  no  other  trace  of 
them  on  earth  in  all  the  records,  monuments, 
or  remains  of  intellectual  man.  Shall  we  say, 
then,  that  the  getting  of  these  things  into  the 
Pyramid  is  mere  blind  accident  and  meaning- 
less coincidence?  Why,  then,  has  the  like 
occurred  but  once  in  the  first  five  thousand 
years  of  man's  existence  ?  Might  we  not  as 
well  take  up  the  tables  of  our  annual  al- 
manacs, and  seeing  them  accurately  fulfilled 
as  the  year  rolls  round,  say,  "These  are  very 
marvellous  coincidences,  but  it  is  all  blind 
guesswork ;  it  has  only  happened  so :  the  men 

18 


274 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


that  made  those  almanacs  really  knew  nothing 
at  all  about  it !"  Which  would  be  the  more 
reasonable,  to  believe  our  annual  almanacs  to 
have  originated  in  haphazard  guessing,  or  to 
set  down  the  Great  Pyramid's  memorialization 
and  constant  use  of  w,  as  a  mere  fortuitous  co- 
incidence, neither  understood  nor  intended  by 
the  architect  ?  And  if  these  ancient  builders 
did  understand  and  build  to  it,  and  lay  up  in 
stone  a  hundred  items  of  most  extraordinary 
intelligence  by  means  of  it,  where  did  they  get 
it  ?  How  came  they  to  be  so  grandly  informed 
above  all  the  children  of  men  for  five  thousand 
years  ?  Can  there  be  any  other  rational  an- 
swer than  that  which  I  have  indicated  in  these 
Lectures  ?  Verily  it  was  God's  special  gift  to 
them  for  this  one  individual  purpose,  that  they 
might  build  unto 'Him,  "in  the  midst  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,"  an  altar-pillar,  which,  in  the 
latter  days,  should  "be  for  a  sign  and  for  a 
witness  unto  the  Lord  of  hosts." 

But  we  are  asked,  if  men  four  thousand 
years  ago  had  such  superior  knowledge,  what 
became  of  it  ?  How  could  it  be  lost  ?  I  might 
as  well  demand,  how  came  the  world  to  lose 
that  knowledge  of  the  true  and  only  God 
which  man  so  eminently  possessed  in  the  be- 
ginning of  his  history  ?    But  I  will  not  press 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


275 


such  an  inquiry.  The  high  knowledge  vouch- 
safed to  the  builders  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  for  a  particular  end,  and  that  end  was  not 
the  enunciation  of  it  to  the  world  that  then 
was,  and  was  in  so  poor  a  condition  to  receive 
or  profit  by  it,  but  for  unique  memorialization 
as  a  message  to  a  long-after  age  of  boastful 
science,  self-defying  theorizings,  and  a  too 
confident  glorifying  of  the  power  and  infalli- 
bility of  man's  reason.  Lost !  It  has  not  been 
lost.  It  is  there,  exactly  where  those  noble 
"  sons  of  God "  put  it,  as  directed  by  the 
Father.  It  has  come  over  the  chasm  and 
waste  of  nearly  forty  and  a  half  centuries 
without  a  word  or  syllable  missing.  There 
lie  its  tables  of  stone,  approachable  to  all  this 
world  of  adored  progress,  and  challenging  all 
the  supercilious  savants  of  unbelief  to  look, 
understand,  and  learn  wisdom.  What  became 
of  it  ?  Why,  having  made  its  intended  voyage 
in  safety  across  the  sea  of  ages  to  our  world, 
and  begun  to  speak  its  grand  message  to  those 
for  whom  it  is  meant,  those  who  should  most 
gladly  welcome  its  glorious  testimony  for  God 
and  his  universal  truth,  and  most  willingly 
give  themselves  to  an  earnest  searching  out 
of  what  it  has  to  say,  insult  it  in  the  halls  of 
science,  scoff  at  it  with  vulgar  jests,  array  it 


276 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


in  robes  of  mockery,  make  merry  over  its 
strange  speech,  disown  it  because  it  will  not 
link  itself  with  their  false  philosophies,  and 
insist  on  gibbeting  it,  or  stamping  it  out  for- 
ever, because  it  puts  forth  claims  to  be  heaven- 
born  and  heaven-sent !  This  is  what  has  be- 
come of  it. 

But  this  inquiry  about  what  became  of  such 
knowledge,  taken  as  an  argument  against  the 
claims  now  made  for  the  Great  Pyramid, 
grounds  itself  upon  an  assumption  which  can- 
not be  maintained.  It  assumes  that  those  who 
built  this  monument  fully  understood  and 
thoroughly  comprehended  everything  which 
now  turns  out  to  be  contained  in  their  edifice. 
This,  as  a  recent  writer  justly  says,  "is  not 
warranted  by  the  logic  of  facts  nor  the  logic 
of  reason."  God's  works  as  a  whole,  both,  in 
nature  and  providence,  are  so  correlated,  and 
are  projected  on  such  a  constantly  recurring 
unity  of  plan,  that  one  department  is  ever 
translatable  into  another — the  natural  into 
the  spiritual,  the  earthly  into  the  heavenly, 
the  microcosm  into  the  macrocosm,  the  sec- 
tional into  the  general,  the  lower  into  the 
higher,  the  units  into  the  multiples,  the  exte- 
rior into  the  interior,  the  beginnings  into  the 
endings,  the  physical  into  the  intellectual — 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


277 


and  each  part  so  coheres  in  the  one  thought 
of  the  one  eternal  and  all-embracing  Mind, 
that  truly  and  adequately  to  symbolize  one 
department  necessarily  includes  like  truths  in 
other  departments,  though  unconsciously  to 
those  framing  the  symbol.    This  one  great 
fact,  of  which  we  now  have  so  many  illustra- 
tions, and  which  is  so  reasonably  inferable 
from  the  origination  and  ordering  of  all  things 
from  and  by  one  and  the  same  infinite  and 
eternal  Intellect,  completely  answers  the  cap- 
tious objections  made  against  pyramidologists 
for  making  the  same  lines,  angles,  measures, 
avenues,  rooms,  and  stones  refer  to  so  many 
different  things.    If  God  arranges  that  the 
leaves  shall  come  out  on  the  stems  of  the  va- 
rious plants  in  an  order  coincident  with  the 
relative  distances  of  the  several  planets  from 
the  sun,  where  is  the  unreasonableness  of  it  ? 
or,  what  confusion  does  it  introduce  between 
botany  and  astronomy?    Because  the  fifth 
chapter  of  Genesis,  read  acrostically  in  the 
import  of  its  names,  gives  us  the  history  of 
human  redemption,  what  hindrance  or  absurd- 
ity does  that  interpose  to  the  reading  of  it  as 
the  obituary  list  of  the  antediluvian  patri- 
archs ?    Does  not  the  same  alphabet  spell  all 
our  words,  and  by  its  various  combinations 


278 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


serve  to  record  all  our  knowledge  ?  And 
when,  by  reading  certain  features  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  in  one  way,  we  get  one  circle  of 
truths,  and  by  reading  them  in  other  ways, 
based  on  Pyramid  presentations,  we  get  quite 
other  circles  of  truths,  or  trace  in  one  part 
coincidences  with  readings  in  a  different  kind 
in  another  part,  where  is  the  illogicalness  of 
it  or  the  confounding  of  things  any  more  than 
in  the  cases  just  named  ? 

When  one  thing  in  God's  wrorks  is  itself  the 
symbol  of  other  things  in  His  works,  it  is  only 
necessary  that  the  constructor  of  the  expres- 
sion of  it  should  understand  the  one  in  order 
to  include  the  other.  And  considering  that 
the  Great  Pyramid  was  built  not  for  the  people 
who  then  lived,  but  in  order  to  convey  a  di- 
vine message  to  the  science  world  of  our  day, 
it  is  not  at  all  implied  that  its  builders  con- 
sciously understood  even  the  half  their  work 
really  expresses.  The  prophets  did  not  always 
understand  what  they  were  inspired  to  write. 
The  holy  record  itself  tells  us  that  they  in- 
quired, and  searched,  and  tried  to  find  out, 
but  never  fully  comprehended  what  and  what 
manner  of  time  the  Spirit  that  was  in  them 
did  signify  (1  Peter  1:10-12).  God's  truth 
was  amply  embraced  in  what  they  wrote,  and 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


279 


in  long  after  time  was  seen  to  be  fulfilled,  and 
served  all  its  intended  ends,  notwithstanding 
that  the  writers  themselves  were  not  thor- 
oughly in  the  clear  about  it.  And  if  the 
prophets  could  truly  enunciate  the  divine  pur- 
pose without  fully  comprehending  it  at  the 
time,  much  rather  could  these  builders  of  the 
Pyramid  do  their  work,  under  the  direction  of 
the  same  Spirit,  without  understanding  all  that 
was  afterwards  to  be  read  from  the  various 
features  of  the  mighty  edifice  they  were  com- 
missioned to  rear,  and  seal  up  till  the  time  of 
the  end.  Who  is  prepared  to  maintain  that 
Moses  fully  comprehended  all  the  relations 
and  symbolic  meanings  which  are  now  seen 
and  known  to  be  contained  in  the  various 
institutes,  constructions,  and  erections  which 
God  directed  him  to  make?  Are  we  therefore 
to  deny  that  these  symbolisms  are  there? 
How  unreasonable  and  illogical,  then,  to  as- 
sume that  the  men  who  built  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid must  necessarily  have  understood  and 
practically  mastered  and  digested  all  the  sci- 
entific and  religious  facts,  histories,  and  proph- 
ecies capable  of  being  deciphered  from  their 
work ;  or  to  argue  that,  because  the  heathen 
nations  give  no  evidence  of  ever  having  had 
such  a  wisdom,  we  must  conclude  against  the 


280 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


possibility  of  finding  it  in  the  Pyramid.  On 
the  contrary,  science  now  proves  that  a  high 
science  is  there,  and  for  the  very  reason  that 
for  so  many,  many  centuries  no  other  trace  of 
it  appears  in  the  works  of  man,  the  conclusion 
should  rather  be  that  it  was  put  there  by  the 
special  inspiration  of  God,  just  as  the  symbol- 
isms of  the  Tabernacle  and  its  arrangements 
were  put  there  by  Him,  and  for  a  correspond- 
ing purpose. 

The  Pyramid  and  False  Philosophy. 

The  apologetic  worth  of  the  Great  Pyramid 
in  the  argument  for  a  correct  understanding 
of  the  origin,  history  and  destiny  of  man, 
should,  of  itself,  command  for  it  the  favorable 
interest  of  every  intelligent  inquirer,  and  espe- 
cially of  every  Christian. 

We  live  in  a  skeptical  age.  In  religion  and 
in  science  the  temper  is  in  the  direction  of  Ra- 
tionalism and  unfaith.  Humanity  has  become 
boastful  of  its  intellectual  power,  and,  proudly 
aiming  to  be  "as  God,"  it  has  become  sensual 
and  devilish.  If  any  one  will  be  at  the  pains 
to  analyze  what  are  considered  the  proudest 
achievements  of  modern  mind,  he  will  find 
them  thoroughly  materialistic,  if  not  exclu- 


A,  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


281 


sively  so,  and  really  but  little  else  than  in- 
spections and  manipulations  of  the  lower  ele- 
ments,— searchings  into  the  ground, — till  it 
has  come  to  be  concluded  in  leading  circles  that 
everything  is  derivable  from  mud,  without  a 
personal  God,  or  need  of  revelations  from  Him. 
This  spirit  is  in  the  prevailing  philosophies,  in 
the  popular  theories  of  politics  and  legislation, 
in  the  noisy  social  reforms  of  the  day,  and  in 
the  most  approved  religious  activities,  reacting 
upon  theology  itself,  eating  away  sound  doc- 
trine, and  substituting  the  rationalistic  fancies 
of  men  for  the  teachings  of  Jehovah.  Even 
good  and  honest  people  are  unconsciously  full 
of  the  noxious  miasma.  From  looking  up 
towards  heaven  and  the  eternal  realities,  there 
is  a  proneness,  a  looking  down  toward  earth, 
and  earthly  interests  and  outcomes.  When 
we  search  into  the  inner  heart  of  modern 
thought  and  feeling,  we  find  lodged  there,  in 
one  form  or  another,  and  more  or  less  affecting 
the  whole  practical  bent  of  the  age,  this  doc- 
trine, that  man  is  an  ever-improving  growth, 
that  nothing  of  truth  and  good  is  ever  forgot- 
ten, and  hence  that  the  career  of  the  race  is 
ever  upward  and  advancing.  Progress  is  the 
watchword  which  tells  the  story.  Some  make 
the  beginning  lower  down,  and  some  locate 


282 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  outcome  higher  up;  but  when  the  whole  is 
resolved  into  its  real  elements, Evolution, round- 
ing up  at  last  in  a  grand  millennium  of  wis- 
dom, peace,  and  blessedness  in  this  present 
world,  is  about  the  sum  of  the  practical  beliefs 
and  teachings  of  our  times.  The  kind,  the 
degree,  the  specific  factors  depended  on,  may 
be  different  with  different  classes,  but  the  type 
is  the  same.  If  we  look  at  the  museums  and  N 
the  books  intended  for  the  instruction  of  the 
people,  wre  find  them  confidently  exhibiting  a 
stone  age,  a  bone  age,  a  bronze  age,  and  an 
iron  age,  as  marking  the  eras  of  man's  coming 
up  from  monkeyhood  or  savagism  to  an  ever- 
improving  science  and  civilization.  The  trea- 
tises on  fundamental  law  largely  assume  the 
same  thing,  and  derive  society  and  govern- 
ment from  the  concession  of  brute  rights  to 
political  rule — as  a  development  from  man 
himself,  with  no  other  foundation.  Theolo- 
gians fall  into  much  the  same  vein,  and  find 
the  essence  of  the  faith  rather  in  the  aggregate 
of  growing  sentiments  and  opinions  than  in  the 
supernatural  revelations  of  God,  and  preach  a 
grand  era  of  triumph  to  come  out  of  human 
agencies,  activities,  and  progress.  The  under- 
lying seed-thought  is  Development,  till  all  de- 
fects are  superseded,  and  hell  itself  is  abolished, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


283 


by  the  unceasing  improvement  and  improva- 
bleness  of  man.  After  all,  Evolution  is  the 
faith. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  true  doctrine  of  develop- 
ment, but  it  is  wholly  different  from  that  which 
so  pervades,  infests,  and  degrades  our  modern 
science  and  theology.  Nor  is  there  anything 
more  needed  by  the  present  world  of  mind 
than  an  effectual  corrective  for  the  false  philos- 
ophy which  is  so  influencing  and  debauch- 
ing it. 

The  truth  is  in  the  Scriptures,  if  men  could 
only  be  persuaded  to  regard  it.  The  history 
of  man  as  there  given,  is  not  at  all  that  as- 
sumed by  the  progressivists.  There  the  first 
man  was  the  most  perfect  of  all  mere  men,  the 
most  knowing,  and  the  most  exalted.  That 
rare  and  special  rapport  with  the  Supreme  In- 
telligence, which  for  certain  gracious  purposes 
was  afterwards  vouchsafed  to  the  prophets,  was 
Adam's  normal  condition.  The  highest  state 
of  mind,  heart,  qualification  for  a  perfect  hu- 
man existence,  and  equipment  for  all  the  sub- 
limest  duties  and  relations  pertaining  to  his 
earthly  life  and  destiny,  were  realized  in  him, 
as  he  came  from  the  Creator's  hand.  A  stone 
age,  or  a  bone  age,  or  a  gaunt  prehistoric  sav- 
agism,  cracking  the  bones  of  wild  beasts  to 


284 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


get  at  the  marrow,  finds  no  place  in  these  sa- 
cred accounts  of  man's  beginning.  No  such 
hairy,  wolfish,  ignorant,  and  base  tenant  of  the 
marshy  woods  or  dripping  caves  did  God  be- 
hold and  bless  when  he  set  Adam  and  Eve  in 
the  wrorld  as  the  image  of  Himself,  and  pro- 
nounced them  "  very  good."  A  terrible  ca- 
lamity soon  ensued  to  blight  man's  pristine 
glory,  so  that  everything  since  naturally  devel- 
oped from  him  has  been  only  deterioration  and 
downwardness.  But  all  his  superior  mental 
endowments  and  knowledge  did  not  at  once 
cease  to  be.  He  was  still  a  most  exalted, 
knowing,  and  civilized  man,  even  after  his  sad 
disobedience,  and  for  all  his  life  of  nearly  a 
thousand  years.  His  first  sons  were  civilized 
men,  who  from  the  first  tilled  the  ground  and 
herded  the  flocks.  While  Adam  lived  there 
were  musical  instruments,  musicians,  and  work- 
ers in  brass  and  iron.  Before  the  flood  came 
mankind  had  all  the  requisite  tools,  skill,  and 
capacity  to  build  a  ship  greater  than  the  Great 
Eastern.  Noah,  who  came  over  the  flood  in 
that  vessel,  still  lived  while  one  of  his  descend- 
ants built  four  cities,  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  world's  first  empire.  A  few  hundred 
years  later  Abraham  appears  as  a  highly  civil- 
ized man,  and  finds  an  established  government 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


285 


and  great  kingdom,  with  all  the  appurtenances 
of  a  busy  and  vigorous  civilization,  in  Egypt. 
At  the  same  time  Chedorlaomer  is  king  of  Elam, 
and  allies  himself  with  other  kings,  and  finds 
kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  to  make  war 
upon.  And  so  the  indications,  as  given  in  the 
Bible,  all  are,  that  the  primitive  peoples  were 
not  savages ;  that  they  had  letters  and  laws, 
records,  arts,  sciences,  society,  government, 
worship,  and  everything  in  greater  perfection 
and  purity  than  all  the  boasted  developments 
of  man  in  these  later  ages. 

This  ought  to  be  enough,  and  to  some,  for- 
tunately, it  is  enough.  But  the  general  mind 
is  not  convinced.  Science  is  disposed  to  ig- 
nore it  altogether,  and  to  insist  on  a  totally 
opposite  theory.  A  proud  and  pervading  skep- 
ticism makes  it  the  subject  of  special  attack 
on  the  Scriptures,  a  supercilious  rationalism 
explains  it  away,  and  Evolution  is  the  faith. 

As  far  as  we  are  able  to  trace  the  history 
of  man  from  his  works  and  remains,  the  scrip- 
tural narratives  would  seem  to  be  borne  out  in 
every  particular.  Everything  that  is  known 
of  the  primeval  peoples  shows  them  coming 
upon  the  scene  together  and  with  a  full-fledged 
civilization.  Beginning  with  modern  Europe, 
we  can  trace  man  back  through  the  Middle 


286 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Ages  to  Rome,  through  Rome  to  750  years 
before  Christ,  and  then  through  the  Greeks 
to  the  Trojan  war,  about  1200  years  before 
Christ.  By  the  aid  of  modern  explorations 
and  discoveries,  in  Mesopotamia,  Egypt,  Per- 
sia, Arabia,  India,  China,  tc,  we  are  carried 
back  to  from  2000  to  2500  years  before  Christ. 
But  there,  within  a  circle  of  a  few  hundred 
years,  all  traces  of  man  disappear.  Some  of 
the  nations  have  claimed  a  much  greater  an- 
tiquity, but  no  monumental  remains  are  to  be 
found  to  prove  them  any  older  than  these 
dates.  Man  has  left  no  memorials  which  can 
be  proven  to  be  older  than  2800  years  before 
Christ,  nor  have  any  been  found  certainly  so 
old  as  that.  Within  a  few  hundred  years  after 
that  date  the  existing  remains  are  numerous, 
and  in  all  of  them  we  find  writing,  engraving, 
husbandry,  government,  vast  architecture,  sci- 
ence references,  brilliant  dressing,  elaborate 
ornaments,  metals,  jewels,  cities,  temples,  and 
all  the  paraphernalia  of  a  high  civilization, 
just  as  the  Scriptures  represent.  But  still 
the  restless  public  mind  is  not  convinced,  nor 
ready  to  settle  down  upon  the  truth — Evolu- 
tion IS  THE  FAITH. 

Here,  then,  conies  in  the  Great  Pyramid  to 
crown  and  seal  the  argument.    It  is  a  tangi- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


287 


ble  monument,  which  dates  back  to  within 
two  hundred  years  of  Egypt's  beginning  as  a 
nation.  It  comes  from  far  beyond  the  historic 
times.  It  was  built  by  those  primeval  peoples, 
of  whose  gradual  education  from  savage  life 
not  a  particle  of  proof  can  be  produced.  Stone 
implements  are  found  in  Egypt,  but  there  is 
no  evidence  that  they  are  any  older  than  the 
Great  Pyramid.  That  greatest  and  oldest  of 
all  existing  edifices  on  earth  was  not  built 
with  stone  saws  and  bone  mattocks.  Iron 
and  steel  were  required,  which  in  turn  re- 
quired furnaces,  and  art,  and  high  civilization 
to  produce  them.  We  know  that  iron  tools 
were  used  in  the  Great  Pyramid's  construc- 
tion, for  one  was  found  by  Colonel  Howard 
Vyse's  excavations  imbedded  in  the  cement 
where  no  opening  was  ever  made  before  from 
the  time  the  building  was  erected.  It  is  a 
large  piece,  and  may  be  seen  in  the  British 
Museum,  in  London,  proving  the  high  civili- 
zation of  the  people  who  used  it.* 

*  Where  did  the  Egyptians,  at  that  early  day,  get  the  im- 
mense quantity  of  iron  required  for  all  the  tools  that  must  needs 
have  been  used  in  erecting  such  an  edifice  of  cut  rocks,  occupy- 
ing 100,000  men  for  thirty  years,  seeing  that  there  is  scarcely 
any  workable  iron  ore  from  one  end  of  the  Nile  to  the  other? 

St.  John  Vincent  Day,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Philosoph- 
ical Society  of  Glasgow,  in  April,  1877,  has  given  answer  to 


288 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


In  this  edifice  is  the  demonstration  also  of 
a  wonderful  genius  and  skill  for  cutting,  dress- 
ing, transporting,  handling,  fittiug,  cementing, 
placing,  and  polishing  the  greatest  masses  of 
the  heaviest  and  hardest  of  rocks.  No  greater 
building  of  solid  masonry  is  known  ever  to 
have  been  in  our  world.    The  perfection  of 

this  question.  The  Sinaitic  mountains  and  hills  are  known  to 
be  full  of  iron  of  the  most  excellent  kind.  A  Mr.  Hartland, 
some  years  ago,  established  himself  in  that  region  for  mining 
purposes,  and  there,  near  Surabit-el-Khadem,  and  not  far  from 
Wady  Meghara,  he  found,  not  traces  merely,  but  colossal  re- 
mains, of  iron  works  and  furnaces,  belonging  to  the  earliest 
kings  of  ancient  Egypt,  and  on  a  scale  so  vast  as  to  be  testified 
to  by  almost  mountainous  heaps  of  genuine  iron  slag  and  verit- 
able iron  furnace  refuse  (see  Proceedings  Soc.  Antiq.,  vol.  v, 
2d  series,  June,  1873).  Nay,  what  is  still  more,  remarkable, 
here  also,  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  the  ancient  piles 
of  slag,  is  a  tablet  containing  the  cartouches  of  Shufu  (Cheops) 
and  Nem-Shufu,  the  same  as  in  the  quarry-marks  discovered 
by  Colonel  Howard  Vise  on  the  hidden  stones  in  the  Great 
Pyramid !  These  records  are  engraved  in  a  soffit  in  the  face  of 
the  natural  rock,  where  they  directly  overlook  the  scene  of  the 
furnaces.  They  begin  with  the  name  of  Soris,  the  immediate 
predecessor  of  Cheops,  under  whom  the  Egyptians  seem  to  have 
been  put  through  the  apprenticeship  of  working  in  iron.  One 
of  Egypt's  ancient  kings  also  appears  on  the  monuments  with 
a  name  which  means  11  a  lover  of  iron."  The  proofs  are  that 
Egypt,  in  the  period  of  the  Great  Pyramid's  building  and  im- 
mediately preceding,  did  here  devote  itself  immensely  and  effect- 
ively to  the  manufacture  of  iron,  and  so  became  supplied  with 
the  metal  implements  necessary  in  the  building  of  the  Pyra- 
mids. And  all  this  was  in  that  very  period  which  is  put  down 
by  the  progressive  development  philosophy  as  the  stone  age  of 
man's  infancy  and  savagism  ' 


JL  miracle  in  stone. 


289 


the  workmanship,  and  the  mechanical  accu- 
racy, and  the  intellectuality  of  the  calcula- 
tions in  the  construction  and  emplacements, 
have  never  been  surpassed  in  any  structure  in 
any  age.  On  its  stones,  too,  are  the  proofs 
that  the  builders  could  read  and  write.  And 
with  such  an  edifice  before  us,  come  down  to 
us  from  almost  the  remotest  extreme  of  the 
known  prehistoric  ages,  and  bearing  with  it 
these  undeniable  marks,  how  overwhelming  is 
the  demonstration  against  the  evolution  phi- 
losophy.1. Well  may  the  skeptical  Renan  con- 
fess and  exclaim:  "When  we  think  of  this 
civilization,  that  it  had  no  infancy ;  that  this 
art,  of  which  there  remain  innumerable  monu- 
ments, had  no  archaic  period;  that  the  Egypt 
of  Cheops  and  Cephren  is  superior,  in  a  sense, 
to  all  that  followed;  on  est jpris  de  vertige." 

But  when  to  all  this  we  add,  as  we  must, 
those  higher  and  sublimer  things  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  of  which  Renan  then  had  no  con- 
ception,— when  we  add  the  high  mathematical 
principles,  the  astronomical  calculations  and 
references,  the  cosmical  knowledge  and  sym- 
bolizations,  the  metrological  embodiments  and 
indications,  and  the  geographical  aptitudes  so 
unmistakably  identified,  capable  of  being  read 
only  in  the  light  of  the  highest  achievements 

19 


290 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  modern  science,  and  enunciated  with  a  defi- 
niteness  and  precision  which  modern  science 
has  in  most  instances  not  yet  reached, — when 
we  trace  here  a  symbolized  epitome  of  univer- 
sal truth  and  knowledge,  much  of  it  beyond 
any  science  of  mere  man,  and  nowhere  trace- 
able on  earth,  save  here  and  in  the  Scriptures, 
Kenan's  fit  of  giddy  consternation  must  needs 
be  intensified  into  most  stunning  and  crushing 
disaster.  The  evolution  philosophy,  whether 
in  science,  art,  or  theology,  here  meets  a  mas- 
sive and  invincible  contradiction  and  catas- 
trophe, which  buries  it  under  five  million  tons 
of  worked  marble  and  granite !  It  must  lift 
the  Great  Pyramid  out  of  the  path  of  human 
history,  or  it  is  in  all  sound  reason  estopped 
forever,  and  all  its  kindred  Rationalism  with  it. 

Of  course  the  made-up  evolutionists  will  not 
agree  that  the  Great  Pyramid  has  killed  their 
god.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  they  will 
yield  at  summons  to  such  a  thorough  revolu- 
tion and  reconstruction  in  their  favorite  and 
life-long  theories.  How  can  they  patiently 
resign  what  is  so  much  a  part  of  their  proudest 
boast  and  being  ?  And  hence  it  is  that  the 
presentations  concerning  the  Great  Pyramid 
appear  to  them  so  absurd  and  ridiculous  that 
any  silly  question  or  clever  trick  is  deemed 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


answer  enough  to  all  the  showings  on  the  sub- 
ject. But  if  the  mighty  monument  is  to  be 
allowed  its  full  say,  all  the  subtle  theories  that 
contradict  or  emasculate  the  Bible  story  must 
take  defeat,  from  which  there  is  no  recovery. 


Some  Additional  Particulars. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  preceding  Lec- 
tures several  further  items  have  been  brought 
forward  with  regard  to  the  Great  Pyramid's 
symbolizations,  to  some  of  which  it  may  be 
desirable  here  to  allude. 

If  this  great  monument  really  presents  what 
I  have  indicated  with  reference  to  astronomical 
and  cosmical  truths,  we  might  reasonably  ex- 
pect it  also  to  embody  some  data  respecting 
the  alternation  of  the  seasons,  and  the  causes 
by  which  these  differences  in  the  course  of  a 
year  are  produced.  The  same  would  also  seem 
to  have  been  discovered  in  the  eccentricity  of 
the  placement  of  the  entrance  tube.  That  en- 
trance is  not  in  the  centre  of  the  building,  but 
a  little  to  the  eastward.  Of  and  on  this  dis- 
placement, Mr.  Cockburn  Muir,  civil  engineer, 
has  made  calculations,  and  mathematically 
treated  them  in  connection  with  other  Pyra- 


292 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


mid  numbers  and  proportions,  and  found  the 
indication  of  an  angle  equal  to  23°  57'  50", 
which  he  regards  as  an  expression  of  what  the 
obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  was  in  the  year  the 
Pyramid  was  built.  Having  calculated  for  the 
degree  of  eccentricity  of  the  ecliptic  in  B.C. 
2170,  the  result  came  out  coincident  with  the 
angle  he  had  deduced  from  the  entrance  pas- 
sage displacement  within  49".  Another  and 
earlier  calculation,  however,  made  with  par- 
ticular care  by  Mr.  J.  N.  Stockwell  (printed 
in  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge 
for  1872),  presents  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic, 
in  2170  B.C.,  as  23°  57'  50.2",  exactly  within 
two-tenths  of  a  second  what  Mr.  Muir  calcu- 
lated from  the  Pyramid  that  the  angle  should 
be.  The  processes  are  indicated  in  Prof. 
Smyth's  last  edition  (1877)  of  Our  Inheritance 
in  the  Great  Pyramid  (pp.  401-7).  The  angle 
of  the  obliquity  of  the  ecliptic  at  present  is 
given  in  the  books  as  23°  27'  30". 

The  same  displacement  in  the  number  of  its 
inches  (three  hundred  and  a  small  fraction), 
also  gives  the  ellipticity  of  the  earth,  or  the 
amount  of  the  protuberance  at  the  equator 
over  its  polar  diameter,  which  science  has 
registered  at  one  three-hundredth,  or  close 
thereto,  and  on  which  rests  that  remarkable 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


293 


feature  in  the  appearances  of  the  heavens 
which  makes  the  precessional  cycle. 

During  last  winter  a  gentleman  from  Swit- 
zerland, who  became  particularly  interested 
in  my  remarks  on  the  Pyramid's  symboliza- 
tions  of  Christianity  found  in  the  Grand  Gal- 
lery, called  my  attention  to  a  fact  which  he 
regarded  as  singularly  confirmatory  of  the 
presentations  on  that  subject.  Everything  in 
Christianity,  he  justly  said,  rests  on,  as  it  prac- 
tically perpetuates,  the  life,  death,  resurrec- 
tion, and  ascension  of  Jesus  Christ.  Those 
rampholes,  in  connection  with  the  vertical 
settings  into  the  walls  beside  them,  refer  back 
to  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  sym- 
bolized by  the  "  well,"  and  express  the  same  as 
spiritually  wrought  into  the  experiences  and 
hopes  of  all  true  Christians.  And  so,  he  said, 
the  number  of  inches  in  the  whole  length  of 
the  Grand  Gallery,  divided  by  the  number  of 
these  rampholes,  gives  the  exact  number  of 
years  embraced  in  Christ's  earthly  life,  from 
his  birth  to  his  ascension  into  heaven,  namely, 
33  years  and  nearly  one-half. 

It  may  also  be  observed,  that  the  length  of 
the  Grand  Gallery  in  inches,  divided  by  the 
number  of  stones  by  which  it  is  covered,  gives 
the  exact  number  of  weeks  in  a  year,  including 


294 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


the  fraction,  and  that  these  thirty-six  roof- 
stones  likewise  count  the  number  of  millions 
of  cubic  inches  of  space  inclosed  in  the  Gal- 
lery, of  which  they  are  the  ceiling.* 

*  A  correspondent  has  also  called  my  attention  to  other  pas- 
sages than  those  which  I  cited  in  the  preceding  Lectures  in  the 
Book  of  Job.  He  thinks  he  can  trace  various  indications,  as- 
sertions, and  allusions  in  that  remarkable  book,  as  I  believe  he 
can,  which  strongly  confirm  some  of  the  points  suggested  in 
these  Lectures.  He  refers  particularly  to  Job  26 :  13,  as  very 
distinctly  assigning  the  framing  of  the  constellations  to  a  divine 
source,  and  specially  singling  out  the  constellation  of  the  dragon 
or  serpent,  as  formed  of  God,  and  which  is  one  of  the  founda- 
tion references  in  the  Great  Pyramid.  Job  is  there  describing 
the  power,  majesty,  and  doings  of  God,  and  says:  "By  his 
Spirit  he  hath  garnished  the  heavens  ;  his  hand  hath  formed 
the  crooked  [or  fleeing]  serpent."  The  annotator  in  Bagster's 
quarto  Bible  very  pertinently  remarks,  that  the  last  statement 
must  refer  to  some  constellation,  "  as  it  is  not  likely  that  this 
inspired  writer  should  in  an  instant  descend  from  garnishing 
the  heavens  to  the  formation  of  a  reptile. "  Barnes  says,  "  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Job  refers  here  to  one  of  the  constellations, 
which,  it  seems,  was  then  known  as  the  serpent  or  dragon." 
But  if  so,  then  the  garnishing  or  adorning  of  the  heavens  in 
general,  must  refer  to  the  arrangement  of  the  constellations  in 
general,  of  which  the  making  of  "the  fleeing  serpent"  is  one. 
And  so  Barnes  concludes :  "  The  sense  in  the  passage  before  us 
is,  that  the  greatness  and  glory  of  God  are  seen  by  forming  the 
beautiful  and  glorious  constellations  that  adorn  the  sky;"  not 
simply  the  stars  of  which  they  are  composed,  but  the  figures 
by  which  they  are  designated.  There  is  also  a  very  full  and 
evangelic  theology  contained  in  these  constellations  which 
can  easily  be  read,  and  which  is  so  utterly  confounding  to  the 
rationalism  of  our  day  that  there  ought  to  be  no  delay  in 
bringing  it  out.  They  are  the  Gospel  on  the  sky,  formed  of  God, 
or  by  "his  Spirit"  inspiring  men  for  the  purpose,  and  the 
Pyramid  is  their  earthly  counterpart. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


295 


A  few  months  ago  a  Pennsylvania  clergy- 
man, much  interested  in  these  studies,  and 
strongly  impressed  with  the  arguments  for  the 
supernatural  origin  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  sug- 
gested that  if  the  Grand  Gallery  represents  the 
Christian  dispensation  from  the  birth  of  Christ 
to  its  end,  there  would  probably  be  some  refer- 
ence to  the  great  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth 
century;  that,  if  anything  of  this  could  be 
pointed  out,  it  would  greatly  strengthen  the 
whole  theory;  and  that  he  much  wished  some 
examination  with  regard  to  this  particular. 
Answer  was  given  him  that  the  suggestion 
refers  to  a  matter  of  detail  which  we  could 
hardly  hope  to  find  in  so  summary  a  symboli- 
zation  of  our  economy  as  a  whole  ;  that,  in  the 
scriptural  prophecies  of  the  Church's  career, 
specific  references  to  the  Reformation  are  very 
hard  to  find  and  identify ;  and  that  it  would 
scarcely  be  fair  to  expect  symbolisms,  dating 
two  thousand  years  before  the  New  Testa- 
ment, to  be  more  full  and  specific  than  the 
New  Testament  itself.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
promised  to  make  some  examination  with  ref- 
erence to  the  suggestion. 

In  searching  the  recorded  descriptions,  no- 
tations, and  measures  of  the  Grand  Gallery, 
nothing  presented  itself  from  which  to  read 


296 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


aught  touching  the  Reformation,  unless,  per- 
haps, the  difference  of  solidity  and  durability 
in  the  courses  of  the  rampstones,  interpreted 
in  the  same  way  in  which  I  spoke  of  the  great 
step  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Gallery  (pp. 
135-6).  In  the  condition  of  these  rampstones, 
some  facts  do  appear  which  rather  singularly 
coincide  with  features  in  the  condition  of  the 
Church  at  the  different  dates  of  its  history, 
and  which  may  have  been  designed  to  express 
those  features.  Without  intending  to  found 
an  argument  on  these  particulars,  they  are 
sufficiently  curious  and  interesting  to  be  noted. 

The  rampstones  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Grand  Gallery,  from  1087  to  1186  inches  from 
the  beginning,  seem  to  have  been  unusually 
weak  and  frail,  as  much  of  the  ramp  for  this 
interval  is  almost  entirely  broken  away.  So 
on  the  west  side,  from  1240  to  1317  inches, 
the  ramp  has  considerably  yielded,  and  is 
much  broken  away.  So  the  incisions  in  the 
ramps,  that  is,  the  rampholes  or  little  open 
graves,  on  the  east  side,  from  1087  to  1186 
inches,  are  almost  entirely  gone,  broken  away. 
On  the  west  side,  from  1240  to  1317  inches, 
it  is  the  same. 

Another  presentation  is  that  the  east  ramp, 
from  640  to  1400  inches  from  the  beginning, 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


297 


is  much  "fissured  and  parted  from  the  walls, 
also  the  floor  from  the  ramps."  On  the  west 
side,  for  this  same  distance,  the  floor  is  parted 
from  the  ramp,  so  as  to  leave  a  crevice  half  an 
inch  wide. 

Prof.  Smyth  remarks  that  "along  nearly  the 
whole  distance  from  400  to  1800  inches  of 
western  ramp,  and  occasionally  along  eastern 
ramp,  there  are  longitudinal  parallel  scratches, 
forming  almost  a  border,  or  species  of  intended 
ornament,  following  the  direction  of  the  ramp. 
They  are  inflicted  upon  and  along  its  upper 
edge,  close  under  the  top,  and  toward  the  axis 
of  the  Gallery.  But,  although  the  same  lines 
are  traceable  far,  they  do  not  extend  the  whole 
distance,  being  more  or  less  gradually  retraced 
by  others." 

If,  then,  we  take  an  inch  as  the  symbol  of 
a  year,  as  in  other  instances,  we  would  thus 
have  signs  of  weakening  and  giving  way 
from  1000  to  1317,  and  so  again  from  640  to 
1400.  There  would  seem  to  be  also  the  signs 
of  violent  and  varied  defacements,  beginning 
with  about  400,  and  extending  more  or  less, 
with  some  interchanges,  down  to  our  present 
century.  Compare  these  indications  now  with 
the*  historical  facts  and  general  condition  of 
the  Church  at  those  dates  of  our  era. 


298 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


A.D.  640.  This  was  the  time  in  which 
lordly  privileges  and  investments  were  con- 
ferred upon  the  clergy,  introducing  that  wide 
and  long-continued  severance  between  them 
and  the  laity.  It  was  the  time  when  the 
Romish  hierarchy  gradually  began  to  assume 
its  imperious"  authority,  which  grew  and  con- 
tinued in  its  strength  for  so  many  centuries. 

A.D.  1000  to  1300.  In  this  period  the 
Church  reached  its  most  ruinous  condition. 
It  was  the  sceculum  cbscurum  of  Christian  his- 
tory, the  age  of  darkness.  It  was  during  this 
time  that  the  Church  was  rent  into  two  op- 
posing, factions,  the  Eastern  and  the  Western, 
which  mutually  excommunicated  each  other. 
It  was  the  period  in  which  transubstantiation 
was  confirmed  as  a  doctrine,  Mariolatry  in- 
serted in  the  liturgies,  converts  made  by  force 
of  arms,  and  religion  turned  into  a  mere  me- 
chanical routine.  It  was  the  age  of  Hilde- 
brand,  and  the  establishment  of  a  Caesarism 
over  the  Church  of  God.  It  was  the  period 
of  the  dominancy  of  monkery  in  its  worst 
corruptions,  when  scandalous  profligacy  and 
ignorance  disgraced  the  ministry,  when  the 
reading  of  the  Bible  was  prohibited  under  the 
severest  penalties,  when  false  sacraments  were 
multiplied,  penances  instituted,  indulgences 


A  MIRACLE  IS  STONE. 


299 


invented,  the  Church  subjected  to  a  blind  sub- 
mission to  a  domineering  priesthood,  and  in- 
terdicts and  penalties  dealt  out  upon  kings  and 
nations  by  a  usurped  plenary  jurisdiction  at 
Eome.  It  was  the  worst  period  in  all  the 
history  of  the  Church,  in  which  spiritual 
Christianity  had  wellnigh  departed  from  the 
earth. 

These  are  the  inch  numbers  which  include 
the  greatest  dilapidations,  breakages,  and  de- 
fects. Take  now  those  which  indicate  the 
greatest  firmness  and  durability. 

A.D.  1186  and  onward  presents  various 
movements  for  a  better  order  of  things,  the 
beginnings  of  reformation,  the  revival  of  edu- 
cation, the  commencement  of  the  study  of  the 
classics  and  of  theology  as  a  science,  and  the 
introduction  of  reason  and  sense  into  the  treat- 
ment of  sacred  things.  It  was  the  age  of  Al- 
exander Hales,  Bonaventura,  Albert  Magnus, 
Thomas  Aquinas,  Duns  Scotus,  Roger  Bacon, 
and  the  Magna  Charta.  It  was  the  period 
when  the  papal  power  began  to  decline  before 
the  germs  of  free  institutions  and  popular 
rights,  the  founding  of  universities,  and  the 
study  of  religious  doctrines.  It  was  the  period 
when  the  human  mind  began  to  stir  again.  It 
was  the  period  of  the  laying  of  the  foundations 


300 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


on  which  the  great  Reformation  was  subse- 
quently wrought  out. 

A.D.  1400  and  onward  was  specially  marked 
as  a  period  of  reformers  and  of  reformatory 
discussions  and  councils.  It  was  the  period  of 
Wickliffe  in  England,  Huss  in  Bohemia,  Ger- 
son  in  France,  Tauler  in  Germany,  and  Thomas 
a  Kempis.  It  was  the  period  of  early  Bible 
translations,  of  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
of  general  awakening  and  agitation  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  purer  and  living  faith,  and  a  better 
morality,  which  came  to  fulness  and  matured 
fruit  in  the  hundred  years  succeeding. 

But  besides  the  brokenness  and  waste  of  the 
ramps  and  the  rampholes,  and  the  damaging 
partings  that  appear,  there  are  particular  scar- 
ifications. They  have  the  peculiar  character 
of  being  "inflicted"  or  imposed  by  some  ad- 
verse violence,  partly  on  the  eastern  ramp,  but 
especially  on  the  western,  from  400  to  1800. 
They  are  interchanged  with  each  other,  one 
seemingly  running  out,  and  then  another  taking 
its  place.  They  tell  of  extraneous  power  brought 
to  bear  to  tear  and  scratch  the  ramps,  and  to 
disfigure  them.  And  when  we  consider  the 
Church's  history  with  reference  to  such  scarify- 
ing external  powers  exerted  in  and  upon  the 
Church,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  a  more  ex- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


301 


pressive  figure  of  them  than  the  appearances 
on  these  ramps.  Going  back  to  A.D.  400,  we 
strike  the  very  time  in  which  Alaric  and  his 
heathen  hordes  came  down  like  an  avalanche, 
scarifying,  oppressing,  and  crushing  almost  to 
destruction,  the  Church,  with  the  nations  which 
he,  and  those  who  so  speedily  followed  him, 
overran.  Soon  after  these  barbaric  invasions 
in  the  west  came  Mahomet  and  his  victorious 
armies  in  the  east,  much  after  the  same  style, 
whose  baleful  scourgings  of  the  Christian  peo- 
ples and  Church  extend  through  the  centuries. 
About  that  same  period  emperors  commenced 
their  political  interferences  with  the  Church, 
putting  forth  enactments  which  had  to  be 
obeyed,  conferring  State  powers  on  Church 
offices,  secularizing  the  clergy,  and  enforcing 
many  an  extraneous  and  rasping  domination 
in  and  upon  the  family  of  Christ,  the  scars  of 
which  can  be  traced  in  varying  lines  through 
all  the  succeeding  ages.  The  State  legisla- 
tion which  is  still  betimes  hurting  and  cramp- 
ing the  Christian  household  is  but  the  dwin- 
dled continuity  of  the  same  scarifications. 

I  lay  no  special  stress  on  these  somewhat 
striking  coincidences.  If  they  stood  alone  I 
would  not  mention  them.  It  is  but  natural 
that  some  stones  in  the  ramp-courses  in  such 


302 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


an  edifice  as  the  Pyramid  should  be  more  firm 
and  durable  than  others,  though  selected  with 
a  view  to  equality.  Nor  is  it  marvellous  that 
some  accident  should  have  inflicted  those  in- 
terlaced scar-lines  and  defacements,  either  in 
the  course  of  the  building  or  since.  But  still, 
if  God  really  had  anything  to  do  with  the  con- 
struction of  the  Pyramid,  He  could  just  as  easily 
as  not  have  caused  those  weaker  stones  and 
those  violent  inflictions  to  come  just  at  those 
places,  and  between  those  measures,  where 
they  would  best  symbolize  these  incidents  of 
the  history.  Neither  is  it  impossible  that  the 
builders  should  have  consciously,  by  His  direc- 
tion, so  arranged.  This,  however,  is  plainly 
to  be  seen,  that  these  weaknesses  and  scarify- 
ings  do  appear  where  they  belong,  on  the  the- 
ory that  the  Grand  Gallery  was  meant  to  be  a 
symbol  of  the  Gospel  dispensation,  and  that 
the  facts  in  the  Pyramid  do  strikingly  accord 
with  the  facts  of  the  history.  It  may  be  mere 
coincidence;  but,  considered  along  with  so  many 
other  things  of  the  same  fitting  character,  it 
cannot  be  without  some  incidental  worth,  an 
unexpected  side-light,  in  confirmation  of  the 
conclusions  touching  this  great  Pillar  of  Wit- 
ness. It  is  the  more  noteworthy  for  the  details 
of  the  history  with  which  it  coincides. 


• 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


303 


Outcome  of  the  Grand  Gallery. 

But  if  the  Grand  Gallery  is  in  truth  a  cor- 
rect svmbol  of  the  Church's  career  on  earth: — 
if  indeed  we  have  here  a  monumental  attesta- 
tion to  those  sacred  prophecies  and  showings 
which  the  Scriptures  have  recorded  for  our 
learning  touching  this  world's  close,  we  are 
now  so  near  its  end,  that  we  cannot  view  it 
with  seriousness  and  not  be  somewhat  anxious 
about  the  outcome  from  it. 

Everywhere  does  the  holy  Book  inform  us, 
that,  as  our  dispensation  begun  with  the  per- 
sonal advent  of  the  Saviour,  so  it  is  to  ter- 
minate with  a  second  advent  of  that  same  Je- 
sus, who  is  to  come  again  in  like  manner  as  he 
was  seen  to  depart  forty  days  after  his  resur- 
rection. That  second  coming  is  also  repre- 
sented as  sudden  and  stealthy — not  totally 
unheralded,  but  with  the  signs  and  announce- 
ments of  it  unheeded  by  the  great  body  of 
mankind,  including  the  nominal  Church  as 
well.  Everywhere  all  Christian  people  are  ex- 
horted to  keep  themselves  in  thorough  readi- 
ness, for  the  reason  that  "  in  such  an  hour  as 
ye  think  not  the  Son  of  man  cometh."  With- 
out these  sacred  instructions  from  Christ  and 
his  inspired  messengers,  we  could  not  know 


304 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


these  things,  and  could  not  read  them  from  the 
Pyramid.  But  with  the  plain  written  word 
before  us  we  can  find  here  a  correspondence  so 
exact  to  the  letter  of  Scripture,  that  we  must 
refer  both  to  the  same  eternal  prescience,  and 
may  assure  ourselves  of  the  true  interpretation 
of  the  one  by  the  monumental  attestations  of 
the  other. 

Our  dispensation  is  to  have  an  end,  followed 
by  a  dispensation  of  sore  judgment  upon  the  un- 
ready when  that  end  comes.  This  is  Bible  doc- 
trine. And  so  the  Grand  Gallery  suddenly  ter- 
minates against  a  high,  impending,  solid  wall. 

But,  although  our  dispensation  (a(wv)  is  to 
come  to  a  sudden  and  perpetual  end,  it  is  not 
the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  that  the  earth 
is  then  to  cease  to  be,  or  that  men  will  no 
longer  live  on  it,  or  that  all  history  is  then  to 
terminate.  The  earth  will  continue;  there 
will  still  be  people  upon  it,  and  some  sort  of 
history  will  go  on.  But  it  will  be  a  very  dif- 
ferent history  from  that  which  now  is.  The 
dispensation  will  be  changed,  and  the  whole 
current  and  condition  of  things  suddenly  and 
greatly  altered.  All  the  commissions  and  ap- 
pointments under  which  the  Church  and  Chris- 
tians are  now  acting  will  then  expire  by  limita- 
tion.   Everything  then  will  come  under  a  new 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


305 


order,  determined  by  new  manifestations  from 
heaven,  and  shaped  to  a  different  administra- 
tion. Time  will  not  cease;  worlds  will  not 
be  missed  from  their  orbits;  but  the  last  day 
of  this  a(ajv  will  have  expired,  and  the  period 
of  judicial  retribution  will  have  set  in.  Such 
is  the  tenor  of  the  Scriptures,  and  such  are  the 
showings  in  the  ending  of  the  Pyramid's  Grand 
Gallery. 

There  is  a  twofold  outlet  or  continuity  from 
this  grand  room  of  the  seven  courses — one 
above  and  one  below.  The  one  above  is  the 
nearest  to  the  beginning,  if  we  take  the  ver- 
tical measures  of  it,  for  the  south  end  wall 
leans  inward  about  one  degree.  If  measured 
at  right  angles  with  the  incline  of  the  Gallery 
it  is  about  three  times  that  distance  further 
off  than  the  base  of  the  wall.  This  upper 
outlet  was  first  discovered  by  Nathaniel  Davi- 
son in  1764.  It  is  at  the  top  southeast  corner 
of  the  Grand  Gallery,  about  twenty-eight  feet 
above  the  main  floor,  "only  accessible  to  some- 
thing approaching  to  winged  and  flying,  rather 
than  walking,  beings."  It  is  a  low  passage, 
which  the  discoverer  found  almost  closed  up 
with  the  filth  of  bats,  and  which  he  with  much 
labor  and  patience  cleared  out.  He  found  it 
leading  horizontally  southward  for  about  three 

20 


306 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


hundred  inches  into  the  lowest  of  those  five 
"  Chambers  of  Construction,"  which  a  clerical 
correspondent  thinks  symbolic  of  degrees  and 
sanctuaries  of  rest  in  the  supernal  life  of  the 
saints.  The  low,  unfinished  room  over  the 
King's  Chamber,  has  the  indications  of  a  sort 
of  concealed  retreat,  far  out  of  the  way,  inac- 
cessible, except  to  a  few,  and  not  significant 
of  a  permanent  abode  of  life.  Egyptology  has 
no  explanation  for  it.  Nothing  in  the  line  of 
scientific  symbol  has  so  far  been  found  in  it. 
And  in  biblical  eschatology  alone  do  we  find 
any  call  for  such  indications,  in  order  to  fur- 
nish a  thorough  symbol  of  the  final  outcome 
from  the  Gospel  dispensation.  Note  the  Scrip- 
tural teachings. 

Immediately  on  the  termination  of  the 
Saviour's  judgments  of  the  seven  Churches, 
John,  in  the  Apocalypse,  beheld  "a  door 
opened  in  heaven,"  and  heard  a  trumpet  voice, 
which  said,  "  Come  up  hither"  At  once  he 
found  himself  in  the  Spirit,  gazing  upon  the 
divine  wonders  of  the  higher  world.  This  is 
the  termination  of  the  Church's  earthly  his- 
tory as  to  the  best  and  truest  part  of  it.  The 
Saviour  has  elsewhere  told  us  more  plainly 
that,  when  the  great  day  of  judgment  breaks, 
there  shall  be  some  who,  by  constant  watch- 


A  MIRACLE  IX  STOXE. 


307 


fulness  and  prayer,  shall  "be  accounted  wop 
thy  to  escape  all  these  things  that  shall  come 
to  pass,  and  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man;" 
that  "in  that  night"  one  in  bed,  or  grinding 
at  the  mill,  or  out  in  the  field,  "shall  be  taken" 
while  others  "shall  be  left;1  and  that  those  who 
are  thus  "taken"  are  "eagles"  who,  by  that 
ereption"  are  to  soar  to  the  high  unseen  place, 
where  the  Lord,  from  whom  they  have  their 
life,  will  then  be.  Paul  has  likewise  exhorted 
us  to  comfort  ourselves  with  the  doctrine  that, 
when  the  trump  of  God  shall  sound,  "the 
dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first;  then  we  which 
are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  to- 
gether with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the 
Lord  in  the  air."  Such  revealed  facts  as  to 
one  outcome  from  the  dispensation  that  now 
is,  call  for  just  such  an  arrangement  to  sym- 
bolize them  as  we  find  in  this  top  outlet  from 
the  Pyramid's  Grand  Gallery.  And  there  it 
is,  for  no  other  ascertainable  purpose  than  just 
this,  adding  another  most  significant  item  of 
evidence  that  this  Gallery  was  really  intended 
to  be  a  symbol  of  the  Christian  dispensation, 
and  furnishing  monumental  proof,  of  four 
thousand  years'  standing,  to  the  truthfulness 
of  the  literal  interpretation  of  God's  Word  on 
this  momentous  subject.     Can  any  fair  and 


308 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


honest  man  believe  that  it  just  happened  so? 
Have  we  not  here  "a  sign  and  a  witness  unto 
the  Lord  of  hosts  in  the  land  of  Egypt  ?" 

The  only  other  exit  from  the  Grand  Gallery 
is  through  the  passage  leading  from  it  to  the 
King's  Chamber.  It  is  continuous  with  the 
floor  of  the  Gallery  itself  beyond  the  great 
step.  If  the  Grand  Gallery,  therefore,  refers 
to  earthly  life,  so  must  this  passage  relate  to 
a  continuity  of  earthly  history.  It  is  in  no 
respect  the  continuity  of  the  Grand  Gallery. 
That  sublime  chamber  of  the  seven  courses 
ends  most  positively  against  that  impending 
south  wall  sixty-one  inches  beyond  the  great 
step.  Every  feature  and  characteristic  of  it 
terminates  at  or  about  that  point.  The  same 
floor-line  continues,  but  nothing  else  does.  It 
answers  to  the  idea  of  earthly  history  con- 
tinued, but  put  under  very  different  condi- 
tions. The  way  out  is  as  distinctly  marked 
by  peculiarities  of  its  own  as  the  Gallery  from 
which  it  leads.  It  is  a  low  opening,  of  the 
same  kind  as  that  by  which  the  Grand  Gal- 
lery is  entered,  only  that  it  is  very  sensibly 
lower.  It  is  but  forty-four  inches  where  the 
other  passages  are  fifty-two.  It  is  the  most 
humbling  and  trying  part  in  all  the  Pyramid 
system  of  passageways.    A  man  must  pain- 


A  MIRACLE  IX  STONE. 


309 


fully  bend  in  passing  through  any  of  them,  but 
here  he  must  crouch  himself  down  into  far 
greater  inconvenience. 

Sacred  prediction  tells  of  sore  trials  to  the 
unready  world  when  Christ  comes.  The  eagle- 
eyed  watchers  are  to  mount  up  at  the  first 
signal  to  the  sacred  pavilion  of  Christ's  pres- 
ence, and  thus  escape  what  is  then  to  come  upon 
the  earth.  The  true  Philadelphians,  who 
faithfully  keep  the  word  of  their  Lord's  pa- 
tience, called  up  through  the  door  opened  in 
heaven,  shall  be  kept  from  the  hour  of  trial 
then  to  befall  the  world.  But,  for  all  else  that 
live,  there  will  then  set  in  a  period  of  burdens 
and  griefs  which  shall  bow  them  more  and 
weigh  them  deeper  down  than  ever  mankind 
were  weighed  down  in  all  the  preceding  his- 
tory of  time.  So  the  Scriptures  everywhere 
affirm;  and  here  is  a  speaking  correspondence 
with  what  they  say,  as  vivid  as  any  words  can 
make  it.  The  first  hair's-breadth  beyond  the 
line  of  the  Grand  Gallery's  endingbrings  the  pas- 
senger down  in  painful  humiliation,  from  which 
no  possible  relief  can  come  for  as  many  inches 
as  there  are  weeks  in  a  year.  Could  it  be  mere 
accident  ?  What  thought  or  fancy  freak  could 
have  induced  the  builder  of  a  mere  tomb  to 
introduce  such  strange  and  incommoding,  yet 


310 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


such  distinct  and  positive,  peculiarities?  And 
seeing  how  expressively,  along  with  the  nu- 
merous other  particulars,  it  falls  in  with  the 
inspired  records,  may  we  not  legitimately  infer 
that  the  Spirit  which  fashioned  these  other- 
wise inexplicable  avenues,  and  studied  em- 
placements of  polished  rocks,  is  the  same  that 
indited  the  holy  prophecies  ? 

Time  of  the  End. 

Whether  the  same  correspondence  will  hold 
good  as  to  the  number  of  inches  in  the  length 
of  this  Grand  Gallery,  time  only  can  deter- 
mine. A  few  years  more  will  test  and  settle 
it.  Meanwhile,  it  is  going  beyond  the  prov- 
ince of  these  investigations,  wonderful  as  have 
been  the  facts  brought  out,  to  assume  and 
teach  that  the  end  will  certainly  come  in  the 
precise  number  of  years  from  Christ's  birth 
that  there  are  inches  in  the  floor-line  of  this 
Gallery.  My  office  in  this  matter  has  been  to 
trace  facts  and  coincidences  between  the  Pyra- 
mid and  ascertained  scientific  and  biblical 
truth,  whereby  to  identify  a  wisdom  in  this 
mysterious  pile,  which  could  only  come  from 
a  divine  source,  and  so  to  establish  the  monu- 
mental reality  of  inspiration,  but  not  to  make 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


311 


predictions  of  the  future.  There  are  questions 
unsettled  with  regard  to  the  precise  year  in 
which  Christ  was  born,  as  well  as  some  di- 
versity of  results  according  as  we  construe 
the  several  peculiarities  affecting  the  measure- 
ments, which  must  at  any  rate  somewhat  dis- 
able certainty  and  confidence.  It  is  altogether 
better,  therefore,  to  leave  the  number  of  inches 
in  the  length  of  the  Grand  Gallery  untouched, 
and  merely  set  ourselves  to  keep  in  watchful 
and  waiting  readiness  for  whatever  may  come, 
till  the  few  years  in  the  near  future  shall 
determine  whether  things  are  to  turn  out  as 
they  would  seem  to  be  indicated,  or  not. 

When  the  end  of  the  present  dispensation 
shall  come  has  been  an  anxious  question 
among  Christians  for  nearly  two  thousand 
years.  Inquiry,  and  desire  to  be  informed 
about  it,  is  the  natural  fruit  of  faith  in  what 
has  been  foretold  and  promised  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. No  one  should  be  censured  or  lose 
caste  for  being  concerned  to  know  when  the 
great  things  of  his  hopes  are  to  be  consum- 
mated. The  holy  Apostles  themselves  were 
deeply  exercised  and  often  inquired  with  ref- 
erence to  this  point.  But  God  has  seen  best 
to  throw  a  thick  veil  over  it,  which  we  should 
not  obtrusively  try  to  lift  by  any  over-curios- 


312 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ity  of  ours.  And  by  whatever  indications  led 
to  think  our  redemption  on  the  eve  of  accom- 
plishment, we  should  never  lose  sight  of  the 
Saviour's  answer  to  those  who  sought  his  in- 
structions on  this  point,  namely:  "It  is  not  for 
you  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons,  which  the 
Father  hath  put  in  his  own  poiver."  It  is  un- 
certain and  dangerous  ground  on  which  to 
adventure.  Almost  every  century  since  our 
Lord's  ascension  has  had  its  time  set  in  hu- 
man speculations  for  his  return  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead,  but  thus  far  all  such  at- 
tempts to  fix  upon  the  date  have  utterly 
failed,  to  the  great  discomfiture  of  those  who 
thought  themselves  amply  assured,  thus  piling 
up  demonstration  on  demonstration  to  the 
truth  of  the  Master's  words :  "  Of  that  day  and 
that  hour  Jcnoweth  no  man?  The  Rationalistic 
world  is  ever  parading  these  signal  failures  as 
the  standing  reproach  of  all  prophetic  study, 
and  we  put  ourselves  in  the  position  of  very 
unapt  and  unwilling  scholars  if  we  are  not' 
effectively  admonished  by  them  to  suppress 
our  zeal  and  to  practice  becoming  reserve 
touching  specific  dates  of  unfulfilled  predic- 
tions. For  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  I 
have  been  much  occupied  with  the  study  of 
these  things,  but  it  has  not  sufficed  to  bring 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


313 


me  into  the  clear  respecting  the  arithmetic 
and  chronology  of  sacred  predictions.  That 
we  are  close  upon  the  end,  so  close  that  we 
should  be  in  expectant  readiness  every  day 
and  hour,  I  do  believe  and  testify,  as  the  con- 
current teaching  of  all  the  precepts,  promises, 
and  prophecies  relating  to  the  subject,  and  of 
all  the  light  and  probabilities  within  the  reach 
of  man;  but  just  when  the  solemn  moment 
shall  arrive,  or  in  wThat  day  or  year  it  will 
come,  I  can  by  no  means  tell,  and  doubt  if  we 
ever  will  definitely  know  till  the  summons 
from  heaven  shall  call  the  ready  and  waiting 
saints  to  meet  their  Redeemer  in  the  hidden 
place  beyond  the  clouds.  If  any  quote  me  as 
holding  or  teaching  for  sacred  certainty  on 
this  subject  anything  different  from  what  I 
here  express,  whether  it  be  for  approval  or 
blame,  quote  what  I  do  not  mean  and  never 
have  meant  to  be  understood  from  anything  I 
have  thus  far  said  or  written  at  any  time  in 
any  place.  History  and  observation  have  also 
shown  me  that  the  human  mind  is  ill  pre- 
pared for  sober  profit  from  indications  of  defi- 
nite time  respecting  such  tremendous  mat- 
ters, whatever  guards,  as  mere  conjecture,  are 
thrown  around  them.  There  is  nothing  that 
more  readily  dazes  the  understanding  and  puts 


314 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


unreason  on  the  throne,  whether  on  the  part 
of  those  who  accept  or  those  who  cavil.  I 
have  betimes  felt  called,  for  purposes  of  gen- 
eral information,  hypothetically,  and  without 
thought  of  indorsement  or  denial,  to  give  what 
others  thought  and  argued,  or  what  was  im- 
plied in  interpretations  extensively  accepted; 
but  instead  of  the  statements  being  taken  as 
they  were  intended,  with  the  plain  and  amply 
expressed  reserve  as  to  any  judgment  on  the 
certainty  of  the  premises  involved,  possibilities 
were  seized  upon  as  if  they  had  been  pro- 
nounced doctrines,  likelihoods  as  if  they  had 
been  given  as  convincing  proofs,  and  the 
methods  and  conclusions  of  others  as  if  they 
were  my  own  undoubting  convictions,  thus 
evoking  harsh  and  undeserved  animadversions 
on  the  one  hand,  and  lending  unfortunate 
encouragement  to  fanatical  assurance  on  the 
other.  And  because  of  this  strangely  feverish 
disability  to  deal  with  ordinary  soberness  re- 
specting even  the  most  guarded  presentations 
on  this  subject  of  the  time,  when  the  length 
of  the  Pyramid's  Grand  Gallery,  viewed  as  a 
symbol  of  our  dispensation,  was  touched  in 
the  preceding  Lectures,  I  purposely  left  the 
figures  far  in  the  background,  couching  the 
statement  in  indefinite  terms,  quite  sure  that 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


315 


if  baldly  given  they  would  be  unwarrantably 
seized,  magnified,  and  used  by  some  as  an 
alleged  element  of  definite  prophetic  certainty, 
which  I  did  not  and  do  not  now  consider  them. 

In  view,  then,  of  all  the  facts  of  the  case, 
this  only  needs  to  be  added  here,  to  wit, 
that  enough  appears  from  the  present  state 
of  these  Pyramid  investigations  to  serve  as 
a  very  solemn  admonition  to  all  men  to  be- 
think themselves  of  what  Jehovah  has  fore- 
announced  in  his  written  word,  and  to  take 
heed  lest  at  any  time  their  hearts  be  over- 
charged with  surfeiting  and  drunkenness,  and 
cares  of  this  life,  and  so  that  day  come  upon 
them  unawares,  "for  the  day  of  the  Lord  so 
cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night."  The  Scrip- 
tures make  it  the  solemn  duty  of  every  one  to 
be  in  constant  readiness,  and  expectation  for 
what  must  shortly  come  to  pass,  no  matter 
what  may  become  of  the  Pyramid  theory. 
Meanwhile,  we  incur  no  risk,  and  inflict  no 
damage  on  ourselves  or  others,  if  we  are  the 
more  quickened  by  the  seeming  intimations 
of  this  mysterious  pillar  to  what  is  equally 
our  duty  and  only  security  apart  from  any  of 
these  Pyramid  deductions.  It  will  not  do  to 
conclude  and  say,  as  a  matter  of  faith  and 
doctrine,  that  our  Lord  will  certainly  come 


316 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


when  the  number  of  years  from  his  birth  has 
equalled  the  number  of  inches  in  the  floor-line 
of  the  Pyramid's  Grand  Gallery,  as  that  would 
be  to  propound  for  unmistakable  divine  truth 
what  yet  remains  to  be  attested  as  such.  But 
just  as  little  will  it  do  to  conclude  and  say 
that  our  Lord  will  not  then  come,  seeing  that 
any  day  or  hour  may  precipitate  us  into  the 
midst  of  the  opening  scenes  of  the  day  of 
judgment.  God  only  knows  what  the  future 
will  bring.  And,  in  view  of  the  inscrutable 
uncertainty  in  which  He  has  seen  fit  to  en- 
velop this  question  of  "the  time,"  the  plain 
command  to  all  is:  "  Watch,  therefore,  for 

YE  KNOW  NEITHER  THE  DAY  NOR  THE  HOUR 
WHEREIN  THE  SON  OF  MAN  COMETH." 

With  these  remarks  I  close  this  discussion. 
I  have,  in  good  faith,  discharged  what  I  was 
led  to  consider  an  important  duty  with  regard 
to  this  Pyramid  subject.  There  was  room, 
call,  and  necessity  that  the  wonderful  facts  of 
the  case  should  thus  be  brought  out  and  put 
within  the  reach  of  our  reading  public  in  a 
form  which  could  be  readily  followed,  under- 
stood, and  mastered  by  all.  Whatever  imper- 
fections may  have  attended  my  efforts,  the 
work  which  I  proposed  to  myself  is  now  done. 
I  have  thus  furnished  what  may  be  taken  as 
an  adequate  popular  introduction  to  all  the  ex- 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


317 


isting  information  touching  the  oldest,  great- 
est, and  most  marvellous  edifice  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  built  by  human  hands.  The 
varied  and  important  worth  of  the  subject  to 
science,  philosophy,  and  religious  faith  is  my 
apology  for  pursuing  it  so  far.  The  same 
would  also  be  ample  justification,  as  it  should 
be  a  powerful  incentive,  to  still  further  and 
more  thorough  investigations,  particularly  as 
we  are  as  yet  only  a  little  way  within  the 
margin  of  what  I  believe  is  yet  to  come  out 
of  that  great  Pillar  of  Witness.  I  have  no  re- 
grets for  having  bestowed  so  much  valuable 
time  and  diligent  labor  in  this  direction.  I 
have  been  abundantly  rewarded  in  the  satis- 
faction the  study  has  afforded  me,  in  the  new 
fields  of  learning  and  thought  it  has  incident- 
ally opened  to  me,  and  in  the  clue  it  has 
given  me  to  many  things  of  worth  which  I 
never  otherwise  could  have  reached.  And  if 
any  have  been,  or  shall  be,  moved  by  my 
endeavors  to  follow  my  example  in  trying  to 
search  and  construe  this  sublime  memorial  of 
the  primeval  world,  I  feel  sure  that  they  will 
in  the  end  agree  that  I  have  not  spoken 
without  reason,  and  that  I  have  not  erred 
in  pronouncing  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Egypt 
A  Miracle  in  Stone. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


Gazing,  rapt,  awed,  upon  that  mighty  pile, 
The  mind  is  filled  with  wonder,  and  we  ask, 

Is  it  a  tomb  or  teacher  ?    "Whence  its  stj^le? 

"What  men,  what  age  conceived,  achieved  the  task? 

"Wonder  of  wonders  in  this  land  of  Nile, 

Of  what  great  thought  is  it  the  type  and  mask  I 

Its  chambers,  passages,  mysterious  Coffer, 
Its  layers,  angles,  measurements,  and  stone, 

All,  each,  to  unsealed  eyes  of  men  now  offer 
Solutions  (for  four  thousand  years  unknown) 

Of  truths  which  stand  against  the  doubting  scoffer, 
The  clearer  from  their  test,  as  fully  shown. 

How,  in  its  presence,  modern  pride  is  bowed! 

Its  hoary  wisdom  whispering  from  the  dead, 
Sublime,  mysterious,  awful,  with  the  shroud 

Of  forty  centuries  wrapped  around  its  head  I 
"We  catch  its  muffled  tones,  now  low,  now  loud, 

And  hear  with  wonder  nigh  akin  to  dread. 


APPENDIX. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  RECENT  WRITERS. 

As  a  sequel  to  the  preceding  lectures,  it  may  be  proper, 
and  may  give  satisfaction  to  many  readers,  to  present  the 
opinions  and  statements  of  some  others,  in  their  own  words, 
with  regard  to  this  interesting  subject.  A  few  such  ex- 
tracts are  accordingly  inserted  here  by  way  of  appendix. 

REV.  JOSEPH  TAYLOR  GOODSIR,  F.R.S.E. 

"  I  believe  that  several  important  things  fully  warrant  us 
in  maintaining  that  there  was,  when  the  Great  Pyramid 
was  builded,  and  that  there  is  now,  a  very  sufficient  final 
cause  for  the  rearing  of  such  a  scientific  symbol  as  it  has 
the  best  claim  to  be  considered.  The  urgency  of  this  final 
cause  may  be  seen  to  have  been  great  at  first,  because  in 
spite  of  all  that  had  occurred  at  Babel,  the  two  chief  na- 
tions of  earliest  antiquity,  Chaldea  and  Egypt,  had  deter- 
minedly adopted  sabaism  as  their  worship,  either  by  itself 
or  mixed  with  other  superstitions  ;  and  secondly,  it  is  great 
in  these  times  when  a  lamentable  number  doubt  or  avowedly 
disbelieve,  and  even  laugh  at,  that  Biblical  record  to  which 
the  world  owes  its  present  freedom  from  sabaism  and  in- 
numerable other  evils,  and  when  many  would  ask  us  to  take 
Lucretius  as  our  Bible,  and  a  Lucretius,  too,  expurgated 
even  of  the  pagan's  allusion  to  a  remote  region  in  which 
he  allowed  there  might  be  gods,  but  gods  who  cared  not 
for  man  or  his  affairs. 

M  At  the  earlier  of  the  two  periods  referred  to,  the  Great 
Pyramid,  possessing  the  character  proven  to  belong  to  it, 

(  319  ) 


320 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


would  act  as  a  standard  protest  against  sabaism  and  other 
idolatries,  and  also  against  the  injustice  which  invariably 
asserts  predominance  over  the  mass  of  mankind,  when  the^ 
enlist  themselves  in  the  service  of  falsehood.  Certain  scien- 
tific and  physical  conditions  required  that  the  magnificent 
protesting  fabric  should  be  placed  in  Egypt  rather  than  in 
Babylonia,  the  seat  of  the  undivided  sway  of  sabaism. 
But  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  intercourse  between 
the  primeval  nations  was  so  limited  that  the  religious  and 
moral  lessons  intended  to  be  taught  by  the  chief  wonder  of 
the  world  at  that  time  could  not  reach  from  Egypt  to 
Babylon.  Doubtless  it  would  be  treated  by  the  followers 
of  sabaism  in  Babylon  just  as  it  appears  to  have  been  by 
those  in  Egypt.  That  is  to  say,  there  would  be  continuance 
in  sabaism  in  Babylon  just  as  there  was  in  Egypt  after  the 
strong  hands  of  the  royal  builder,  who  trod  under  his  feet 
Egyptian  gods,  were  powerless  in  death.  At  the  same  time 
the  Egyptians  would  appear  to  have  retained  and  handed 
down  a  partial  knowledge  of  the  true  character  of  the  pyra- 
mid, until  it  became  gradually  obscured,  and  was  at  last 
quite  lost.  But  amongst  the  worshippers  of  the  Lord  God 
the  knowledge  of  its  true  character  was  long  preserved,  as 
would  appear  from  the  symbolic  use  of  it  made  in  the  Book 
of  Job,  and  elsewhere  in  Scripture.  The  traditional  knowl- 
edge of  it,  or  of  the  science  symbolized  by  it,  preserved 
among  the  people  of  God,  was  one  means  we  believe  of 
saving  them  from  that  worship  of  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars  which  Job  declared  to  deserve,  even  on  its  first  ap- 
pearance, death  at  the  hands  of  the  magistrate.  And  I 
may  state  that  for  my  own  part  I  trace  the  fountain  of 
physical  knowledge  which  was  opened  by  God  for  primeval 
man,  and  which  was  symbolized  by  the  Great  Pyramid, 
certain  approaches  made  by  some  Greek  philosophers  to 
some  cosmical  views  deemed  to  belong  purely  to  modern 
times.  These  philosophers  themselves  ascribe  their  knowl- 
edge of  these  things  to  Eastern  and  Egyptian  sources. 
Thus,  Thales  held  all  things  to  have  originated  in  a  fluid 


APPENDIX. 


321 


substance  ;  Lucippus,  the  earliest  Greek  teacher  of  the 
atomic  theory,  held,  as  Aristotle  tells  us  Pythagoras  did, 
that  the  heavenly  bodies  revolve  about  each  other,  com- 
mitting the  error  indeed  of  making  the  sun  revolve  about 
the  moon,  but  still  teaching  truly  that  the  earth  revolves 
about  the  sun,  and  also  about  its  own  axis,  by  which  last 
the  alternation  of  day  and  night  is  caused.  It  appears  to 
me  that  what  is  true  in  this  early  astronomical  view  is  so 
far  removed  from  the  obvious  and  common  conception  of 
the  subject,  as  to  warrant  the  idea  that  the  erroneous  por- 
tion of  the  statement  was  man's  corruption  of  the  pure 
primeval  knowledge  symbolized  by  the  Great  Pyramid,  for 
this  among  other  reasons,  that  it  might  show  us  in  these 
last  days  how  God  supplied  physical  knowledge  to  primeval 
man  that  he  might  be  warned  against*  such  monstrous 
superstitions  as  sabaism,  and  that  the  possession  of  a 
measure  of  such  knowledge  might  preserve  his  true  wor- 
shippers from  many  destructive  errors. 

"But  again,  this  primeval  monument,  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  four  millenniums  since  its  construction,  is  sub- 
serving at  this  very  day  most  important  purposes  as 
respects  wisdom  and  knowledge.  The  gradual  disclosure 
of  its  scientific  mysteries  is  a  result  in  a  great  measure  of 
the  partial  dilapidation  it  has  suffered,  especially  during 
the  times  of  the  barbarous  Mohammedan  rule.  The  number 
and  importance  of  the  lessons  which  its  disclosed  mystery 
teaches  is  indeed  very  striking.  Thus  it  testifies  to  the 
state  of  the  stellar  heavens  at  the  time  of  its  building,  and 
teaches  at  the  same  time  its  own  age.  It  helps  also  to  de- 
termine the  date  of  the  flood,  and  to  give  consistency  to  the 
chronology  and  history  of  diluvian  and  post-diluvian 
times.  It  testifies  to  the  importance  of  the  exact  and  of 
the  physical  sciences — terrestrial  and  cosmical — not  merely 
from  the  utilitarian,  but  from  the  religious  point  of  view. 
It  shows  that  some  unidolatrous  men  possessed  extraordi- 
nary knowledge  in  these  sciences  just  when  the  whole 
world  was  going  widely  astray  in  the  worship  of  sun,  moon, 

21 


322 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  stars,  and  it  thus  seals,  as  with  a  divine  impress  left  on 
adamantine  materials,  the  truth  that  sound  science  is  not 
only  a  handmaid  but  a  defender  of  sound  religion.  More- 
over, it  shows  the  symbols  of  just  weights  builded  into  a 
most  durable  repertory,  as  they  were  afterwards  laid  up  in 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  at  the  very  time  when  a  brutal 
tyranny  was  gradually  overspreading  the  idolatrous  world, 
which  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  chief  seats  in  Egypt, 
and  in  Babel,  the  capitol  of  Nimrod,  that  mighty  hunter 
before  the  Lord — a  tyranny  which,  instead  of  revering  a 
justice  determined  scientifically  according  to  the  measures 
and  weights  employed  by  Opifex  Mundi  himself  when  he 
'  fetched  a  compass  round  the  universe, '  and  '  weighed  the 
hills  in  a  balance,'  despised  all  justice,  and  crushed  the 
body  of  mankind  down  into  beasts  of  burden. 

"  Such  are  the  things  taught  us  at  this  day  by  the  Great 
Pyramid,  as  there  are  noble  men  of  science  sufficiently 
animated  with  Christian  truthfulness  and  courage  man- 
fully to  proclaim.  We  thus  see  a  united  science,  righteous- 
ness, and  religion  testifying  from  the  Great  Pyramid  with  a 
reawakened  mien,  just  as  they  were  intended  to  do  more 
than  four  thousand  years  ago.  The  oldest  and  noblest 
building  is  thus  seen  to  be  at  one  in  testimony  and  in  spirit 
with  the  oldest  and  noblest  book.  God  is  making  that 
great  name  for  himself,  I  believe,  by  the  Great  Pyramid  at 
this  day.  which  the  builders  of  the  tower  of  Babel  sought 
to  make  for  themselves.  If  there  be  any  truth  in  the 
opinion  of  those  who  believe  that  they  can  point  to  some  of 
the  remains  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  then  these  now  present 
only  a  mass  of  rubbish,  blasted  and  vitrified  by  the  wrath- 
ful fires  of  heaven,  though  the  chief  part  of  the  buildings 
has  undoubtedly  sunk  out  of  human  sight  into  the  soft 
alluvial  soil  on  which  they  were  so  unwisely  erected. 
Their  only  lesson  is  that  of  desolation  wrought  by  a  just 
divine  vengeance,  and  the  shortcomings  of  human  ideas. 
The  Great  Pyramid,  on  the  other  hand,  is  lasting  as  the 
hills,  even  as  the  rocky  hill  on  which  it  is  so  securely 


APPENDIX. 


323 


founded,  while  the  very  denudations  it  has  experienced  by 
the  torrents  of  barbarism  rather  than  of  the  elements,  have 
only  furthered  God's  plan  of  making  it  his  witness  to  scien- 
tific truth  in  its  relations  with  justice  and  religion  in  these 
last  days. 

"Putting  together  then  the  various  things  we  have  in- 
sisted on,  I  ask  whether  it  is  after  all  so  wild  and  chimerical 
an  idea  that  God  should  have  stirred  up,  in  the  primeval 
age  of  the  world,  men  who  knew  him,  and  who  inherited  or 
had  imparted  to  them  a  divinely  taught  science  to  construct 
this  greatest  of  allbuilded  monuments  ?  Is  not  this  rather 
the  rational  view  to  take  of  it  ?  Here,  for  one  thing,  is  a 
scientific  symbol,  as  measurements,  calculations,  and  rea- 
sonings of  an  incontrovertible  kind  prove  it  to  be.  This 
matter  stands  on  its  own  basis.  Again,  Scripture  contains 
a  number  of  allusions  and  symbolic  expressions  which  find 
no  object  so  exactly  and  completely  suitable  as  this  con- 
fessed '  wonder '  of  the  ancient  world.  This  also  stands  on 
its  own  basis.  Still  further,  some  such  sufficient  reason  as 
the  symbolism  of  the  Great  Pyramid  presents  is  required 
to  account  for  the  wise  and  sensible  views  of  the  Cosmos 
entertained  by  the  true  worshippers  of  God  from  the  earliest 
ages.  This  is  certainly  a  consideration  of  weight  not  easily 
cast  aside.  In  this  last  consideration  is  also  seen  one  part 
of  the  final  cause  for  the  construction  of  a  symbol  like  the 
Great  Pyramid  shortly  after  the  arrangement  of  the  building 
of  the  tower  of  Babel,  while  another  portion  of  this  final 
cause  is  seen  in  the  inestimable  benefits,  historical,  economic, 
moral,  and  religious,  conferred  on  us  by  the  scientific  char- 
acter of  the  Great  Pyramid  at  this  day. 

"  Here,  then,  are  four  firmly  grounded,  quite  independent 
reasons,  which  unite  in  supporting  the  beautiful  and  no 
less  valuable  theory  as  to  the  divine  authorship  of  the  Great 
Pyramid.  AVe  can  discern  clearly  in  our  subject  also  the 
illustration  and  confirmation  of  this  grand  moral  truth  : 
Man's  ambitions  and  wicked  designs  for  making  a  name  to 
himself,  as  a  power  without  God,  are  invariably  blasted 


324 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


and  end  in  shame,  but  God's  works  endure  and  testify  to 
the  glory  of  that  name  which  will  outlast  the  sun,  moon, 

and  stars." — Seven  Homilies  on  Ethnic  Inspiration,  1871, 
pp.  59-64. 

J.  KALSTON  SKEWER. 

"  To  a  mind  unbiassed  by  the  prepossession  of  a  theory, 
the  assertion  that  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Egypt  was  built  to 
perpetuate  a  series  of  measures,  astronomical  and  otherwise, 
and  to  contain  a  mathematical  and  geometrical  system  of 
calculation  and  admeasurement,  cannot  be  received  with 
incredulity.  .  .  . 

u  As  to  the  objects  of  its  construction,  one  may  be  taken 
as  astronomical,  for  the  facts  that  the  north  base  side  coin- 
cides with  the  parallel  of  30°  north  latitude,  and  that  the 
mass,  as  to  its  sides,  evidenced  by  its  corner  socket  lines,  is 
oriented  as  perfectly  as  could  be  expected  of  human  ability. 
Another  may  be  taken  as  geometrical,  as  it  was  so  built  that 
its  height  should  be  to  one-half  its  circumference  as  diameter 
to  circumference  of  a  circle.  .  .  . 

"  Hence  it  exhibits  itself  as  one  not  only  monumenting  a 
method  of  quadrature,  the  elements  of  which  we  ^possess, 
bat  also  a  measure  of  the  sun's  time,  and  also  the  inch  and 
foot  values.  .  .  . 

"This  measure  is  just  that  one  that,  with  the  ancients, 
seems  to  have  stamped  the  whole  system  as  natural  or 
divine,  i.e.,  showing  that  man  was  but  dealing  in  measures 
in  some  sort  shadowing  forth  mechanical  principles  of  con- 
struction, which  it  had  pleased  the  Creator  of  all  things  to 
adopt  as  the  law  of  creation. 

"The  original  (ideal)  pyramid,  whence  the  real  pyramid 
of  the  Nile  springs,  is  directly  constructed  from  the  original 
elements  of  relation  of  diameter  to  circumference  of  a 
circle.  This  is  circular  elements  one.  On  the  lines  of  this 
original  pyramid  springs  another,  whose  elements  are  circle 
two.  Out  of  the  elements  two  another  set  of  elements  is 
obtainable,  governing  the  interior  work  of  the  pyramid 


APPENDIX. 


325 


proper;  these  elements  are  those  of  circle  three.  (Problems 
given  in  detail.) 

"  These  are  the  circles  whence  the  complete  pyramid,  as 
to  its  outside  and  as  to  its  inside,  is  fitly  framed  and  put 
together,  giving  the  measures  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth. 

"  While  the  triangle  represents  the  pyramid,  the  triangle 
and  circle  represent  the  elements  from  which  the  plane 
measure  of  the  square  of  the  base  of  the  pyramid  is 
derived.  .  .  . 

"  The  author  believes  it  to  be  shown  that  the  elements 
of  construction  of  the  p}'ramid,  and  their  use,  agreeably  to 
the  intention  of  the  architect,  have  been  proved,  and  that 
these  are  shown  to  be  used  as  the  foundation  of  the  Bible 
structure  from  the  6rst  chapter  of  Genesis  to  the  closing 
scenes  of  the  i^ew  Testament. 

"  But  while  these  elements  are  rational  and  scientific,  and 
in  the  Bible  rationally  and  scientifically  used,  let  no  man 
consider  that  with  this  discovery  comes  a  cutting  off  of  the 
spirituality  of  the  Bible  intention,  or  of  man's  relation  to 
this  spiritual  foundation.  Xo  house  was  ever  actually 
built  with  tangible  material  until  first  the  architectural 
design  of  building  had  been  accomplished,  no  matter 
whether  the  structure  was  palace  or  hovel.  So  with  these 
elements  and  numbers.  They  are  not  of  man,  nor  are  they 
of  his  invention.  They  have  been  revealed  to  him  to  the 
extent  of  his  ability  to  realize  a  system  which  is  the  crea- 
tive system  of  the  eternal  God,  open  at  all  times  to  man  for 
his  advance  into  its  knowledge,  just  in  the  measure  of  his 
application  and  brain  ability,  free  to  all  as  is  the  water  we 
drink  and  the  air  we  breathe.  But  spiritually  to  man  the 
value  of  this  matter  is,  that  he  can  actually  in  contempla- 
tion bridge  over  all  material  construction  of  the  Cosmos, 
and  pass  into  the  very  thought  and  mind  of  God,  to  the 
extent  of  recognizing  this  system  of  design  for  cosmic  crea- 
tion— yea,  even  before  the  words  went  forth,  Let  there  be  ! 
It  Is  the  realization  of  the  existence  and  mental  workings 


326 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


of  the  Divine  Mind,  by  means  of  the  little  primal  cube  and 
its  circle,  which  to  us  are  tangible  realities,  and  goes  to 
prove  to  man  that  his  soul  lives,  and  will  continue  to  live, 
and  thus  he  may  take  little  heed  for  his  body,  which  is, 
however  exquisitely  constructed,  but  a  mask  dulling  the 
finer  power  of  his  mental  whole. 

u  The  best  and  most  authentic  vehicle  of  communication 
from  God  to  man,  though  many  exist,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  the  preservation  of  which  in  its  exactitudes 
can  only  be  ascribed  to  a  spiritual  supervision.  A  like 
preservation  of  a  real  monument  of  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  Bible  secret  stands  to-day  on  the  banks  of  the 
Nile." — Key  to  the  Hebrew-Egyptian  Mystery  in  the  Source 
of  Measures,  1875. 

CHARLES  CASEY,  Esq. 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  Eastern  authority  for  the 
sacred  and  scientific  character  of  the  Pyramid  as  opposing 
and  superior  to  the  Western  belief  in  the  tombic  theory, 
which,  however,  naturally  arose  and  was  confirmed  by  the 
erroneous  conclusion  that  the  use  and  character  of  the  pri- 
mary pyramid  might  be  truly  predicated  from  the  unques- 
tionable tombic  pyramids  of  a  later  date.  It  strikes  the 
writer  that  as  far  as  argument  <*oes  touching  the  features 
claimed  for  the  building,  it  would  make  no  difference  what- 
ever if  a  massive  mural  tablet  had  been  found  set  in  the 
masonry  of  the  exterior,  a  lid  found  on  the  Coffer,  a 
mummy  of  Cheops  in  it,  etc.,  etc.,  as  the  fact  would  still 
remain,  that  the  mausoleum  (if  you  will)  and  sarcophagus 
(if  so  insisted)  were  designed  by  an  architect  who  embodied 
in  their  construction  all  the  primary  truths  claimed  and 
verified,  while  still  leaving  them  suited  to  secondary  and 
inferior  uses,  just  as  the  Royal  Scytale  of  the  Spartan  kings, 
while  essential  to  translating  a  decree  on  which  hung  the 
fate  of  nations,  might  serve  to  be  used  for  any  secondary 
purpose. 

"  Therefore,  the  real  and  only  question  is,  Whether  the 


APPENDIX. 


327 


Great  Pyramid  does  or  does  not  contain  the  metric  features 
claimed  for  it  ?  If  it  does,  there  remains  no  doubt  that  the 
architect  who  embodied  the  truths  exhibited  must  have 
been  superhumanly  inspired,  as  in  the  age  in  which  he  lived 
no  such  knowledge  existed  among  men  [except  from  Reve- 
lation]. If  it  does  not  contain  those  metric  features,  de- 
monstrative refutation  is  within  reach  of  line  and  rule,  and 
the  Pyramid  stands  to  be  questioned  of  and  reply  for  itself 
to  all  gainsayers. 

u  To  those  who  reply,  '  We  admit  the  measures,  but  we 
deny  the  conclusions  drawn  from  them,'  the  answer  is,  that 
if  the  measures,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  base  side  length 
giving  the  length  of  the  solar  tropical  year,  exhibited  but 
one  instance  of  preconceived  design,  it  might  be  said  that 
such  coincidence  was  accidental,  but  when  a  concatenated 
chain  of  design  is  shown  of  the  highest  order  of  scientific 
knowledge,  the  denial  of  such  design  in  the  mind  of  the 
architect  is  of  that  class  which  refutes  itself  by  the  absur- 
dity of  its  assertion. 

11  Every  dispassionate  reader  who  has  paid  due  attention 
to  the  argument  advanced  must  be  impressed  with  the  con- 
viction that  in  this  our  day  and  generation,  no  more  im- 
portant question  or  discovery  has  arisen  or  been  made  than 
the  character  and  revelation  of  this  Sethic  monument,  the 
Great  Pyramid,  in,  but  not  of,  Egypt." — Philitis,  or  tlie 
Solution  of  the  Mystery,  1876,  pp.  36,  37. 

JOHN  TAYLOR. 

"  When  so  many  evidences  of  the  scientific  knowledge  of 
the  founders  of  the  Great  Pyramid  present  themselves,  these 
facts  cannot  be  disregarded.  The  difficulty  may  be  great  in 
supposing  a  people  to  have  been  in  existence  at  that  early 
period,  who  were  capable  of  executing  a  work  of  so  vast  a 
magnitude  on  purely  scientific  principles,  but  is  it  not  also 
probable,  that  to  some  individuals  God  may  have  given  the 
knowledge,  even  at  that  early  age  of  the  world,  for  which 
we  are  now  contending  ?    How  could  Noah  have  built  the 


328 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ark  if  he  had  not  been  divinely  instructed  as  to  its  fabrica- 
tion ?  And  might  he  not  have  been  equally  instructed  in 
the  knowledge  requisite  to  form  the  Great  Pyramid  ?  Both 
these  wonderful  works  are  based  on  measure,  and  the  latter 
structure  shows  a  knowledge  of  those  measures  which  were 
in  use  before  the  flood,  as  well  as  of  those  which  were  after- 
wards established,  implying  therefore  an  acquaintance  with 
antediluvian  things.  How  could  the  Arabian  numerals, 
and  the  knowledge  by  which  they  were  so  arranged  as  to 
increase  tenfold  in  power  by  change  of  position,  have  been 
discovered  so  soon  after  the  deluge,  if  the  same  system  had 
not  existed  before,  or  if  divine  assistance  had  not  been 
granted  at  so  early  a  period  after  that  event  ?  Even  after 
these  figures  had  once  been  known,  the  majority  of  man- 
kind for  at  least  three  thousand  years  remained  ignorant  of 
their  use,  and  never  again  hit  upon  the  arrangement  as  a 
discovery. 

"Moses,  we  are  told,  was  admonished  of  God  when  he 
was  about  to  make  the  Tabernacle,  which  was  to  serve  as 
the  example  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things,  '  for  see,  saith 
he,  that  thou  make  all  things  according  to  the  pattern 
shewed  to  thee  in  the  Mount. '  There  is  an  orginality  in 
the  character  of  these  early  revelations,  which  shows  them 
to  have  had  a  higher  source  than  that  of  man's  present  in- 
telligence, great  as  it  may  seem.  Our  modern  discoveries 
are  rather  inferential,  consisting  chiefly  in  the  application 
to  things  known  to  purposes  previously  unknown.  Of  this 
kind  is  the  invention  of  the  art  of  printing.  I  would  not 
detract  from  the  importance  of  modern  discoveries,  but  I 
think  they  seem  to  benefit  mankind  less  than  the  communi- 
cation of  the  art  of  ship-building,  of  the  Arabian  system 
of  enumeration,  of  geometry,  or  the  means  of  measuring 
the  earth,  and  of  the  art  of  alphabetic  writing  : 

'So  thoughts  beyond  their  thoughts  to  those  high  bards  were  given.' 

u  In  regard  to  the  Great  Pyramid,  it  was  the  happy  dis- 
covery of  the  two  casing  stones,  when  all  were  thought  to 


APPENDIX. 


329 


be  destroyed,  which  at  once  changed  conjecture  into  cer- 
tainty. We  now  probably  know  all  that  we  shall  ever 
know  respecting  the  origin  and  purpose  of  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid, and  all  that  we  require  to  know.  We  now  find  that 
all  the  seemingly  different  measures,  when  properly  under- 
stood, are  equal  to  each  other,  and  mean  the  same  thing. 
By  the  knowledge  derived  from  the  angle  of  the  casing 
stones,  and  the  length  of  the  base  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
all  those  measures  of  proportion  which  seem  arbitrary  in 
the  Table  of  Constants,  are  found  to  be  no  longer  so.  The 
measures  of  the  earth  are  no  less  certainly  established. 

"  When  we  find  in  so  complicated  a  series  of  figures  as 
that  which  the  measures  of  the  Great  Pyramid  and  of  the 
earth  require  for  their  expression,  round  numbers  present 
themselves,  or  such  as  leave  no  remainder,  we  may  be  sure 
we  have  arrived  at  primitive  measures." — The  Great  Pyra- 
mid, Why  was  it  Built  f  and  Who  Built  It  f  1864. 

PIAZZI  SMYTH,  F.R.S.E.,  F.R.A.S. 

ASTRONOMER  ROYAL  FOR  SCOTLAND. 

w  What  then  is,  or  is  to  be,  the  end  or  use  for  which  the 
Great  Pyramid  was  built  ? 

"  The  manner  of  that  end  appears— on  putting  facts  to- 
gether— to  have  been,  to  subserve  in  the  fifth  thousand  of 
years  of  its  existence  certain  preordained  intentions  of 
God's  will  in  the  government  of  this  world  of  man. 

"  I  presume  not  to  speak  to  any  other  than  such  parts  of 
the  building  as  have  already  practically  developed  them- 
selves. Herein,  too,  enough  seems  now  to  have  shone  forth 
to  enable  any  one  to  state  roundly  that  the  message 
wherefor  the  Great  Pyramid  was  built  is  largely  of  a  du- 
plicate character,  or  thus  : 

"  (A)  To  convey  a  new  proof  to  men  in  the  present  age 
as  to  the  existence  of  the  personal  God  of  Scripture,  and 
of  his  actual  supranatural  interferences  in  patriarchal 
times  with  the  physical  and  otherwise  only  natural  experi 


330 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


ence  of  men  upon  earth.  Or  to  prove  in  spite,  and  yet  \iy 
means,  of  modern  science,  which  in  too  many  cases  denies 
miracles,  the  a-ctual  occurrence  of  an  ancient  miracle,  and 
if  of  one,  the  possibility  of  all  miracles  recorded  in  the 
Scriptures. 

"(B)  In  fulfilment  of  the  first  prophecy  of  Genesis,  which 
teaches,  together  with  all  the  prophets,  that  of  the  seed  of 
the  woman  without  the  man,  a  truly  Divine  Saviour  of 
mankind  was  to  arise  and  appear  amongst  men,  in  poverty, 
too,  and  humility  ;  in  further  fulfilment  thereof,  the  Great 
Pyramid  was  to  prove  that  precisely  as  that  coming  was  a 
real  historical  event,  and  took  place  at  a  definite  and  long- 
preordained  date,  so  his  second  coming,  when  he  shall  de- 
scend as  the  Lord  from  heaven,  with  the  view  of  reigning 
over  all  mankind,  and  ruling  them  all  with  one  divine 
sceptre,  and  under  one  all-just,  beneficent,  omnipotent 
sway,  that  that  great  event  will  likewise  be  historical,  and 
will  take  place  at  a  definite  and  also  a  primevally  pre- 
arranged date. 

"Now  let  us  look  a  little  closer  into  the  first  of  these. 

"It  would  seem  to  be,  that  an  omniscient  mind  which 
foresaw  in  the  beginning  the  whole  history  of  the  world 
under  man  (especially  the  widespread  science  knowledge  of 
our  day),  ordained  that  the  message,  arguments,  proofs  of 
the  Great  Pyramid  should  not  be  expressed  in  letters  of  any 
written  language  whatever,  whether  living  or  dead,  but  in 
terms  of  scientific  facts,  or  features  amenable  to  nothing 
but  science,  i.  e.,  a  medium  for  the  communication  of  ideas 
to  be  humanly  known  and  interpretable  only  in  the  latter- 
day. 

"  Not  in  the  day  of  the  Great  Pyramid  at  all,  but  rather 
since  the  revival  of  learning  in  Europe,  no  pure  mathemat- 
ical question  has  taken  such  extensive  hold  on  the  human 
mind  as  '  the  squaring  of  the  circle.'  Quite  right  that  it 
should  be  so,  for  a  time  at  least,  seeing  that  it  is  the  basis 
alike  of  practical  mathematics  or  high  astronomy.  That 
quantity  under  the  form  of  k  proportion,  given  in  almost 


APPENDIX. 


331 


every  text-book  of  mathematics  to  more  decimal  places 
than  there  is  any  practical  occasion  for,  having  been  ascer- 
tained for  one  hundred  or  more  years,  men  might  rest  con- 
tent and  go  on  to  other  subjects.  But  numbers  of  them  do 
not  and  will  not.  Hardly  a  year  passes  but  some  new 
squarer  of  the  circle  appears,  generally  a  self-educated  man. 
But  occasionally  the  most  highly  educated  university  math- 
ematicians also  enter  the  field,  and  bring  out  perchance 
some  new  algebraic  series  by  which  a  more  rapid  conveyance 
to  the  true  numbers  of  -  may  be  obtained.  That  numerical 
expression  is  shown  on  all  hands  and  in  all  countries  to  be 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  lasting  characteristics  and 
necessary  results  of  the  growth  of  science  for  all  kinds  and 
degrees  of  intellectual  man,  and  in  an  increasing  propor- 
tion as  they  arrive  at  a  high  state  of  civilization,  material 
progress,  and  practical  development. 

"Is  it  not  then  a  little  strange  that  the  first  aspect 
which  catches  the  eye  of  a  scientific  man  looking  with  sci- 
ence and  power  at  the  ancient  Great  Pyramid,  is  that  its 
entire  mass  in  its  every  separate  particle,  all  goes  to  make 
up  one  grand  and  particular  mathematical  figure  expressing 
the  true  value  of  -  ?  If  this  was  accident,  it  was  a  very 
rare  accident,  for  none  of  the  other  thirty-seven  known 
pyramids  of  Egypt  contain  it.  But  it  was  not  accident  in 
the  Great  Pyramid,  for  the  minuter  details  of  its  interior, 
as  shown,  signally  confirm  the  grand  outlines  of  the  ex- 
terior, and  show  again  and  again  those  peculiar  proportions, 
both  for  line  and  area,  which  emphatically  make  the  Great 
Pyramid  to  be,  as  to  shape,  a  --shaped  and  a  rr -memorial- 
izing pyramid, — the  earliest  demonstration  known  of  the 
numerical  value  of  that  particular  form  of  squaring  the 
circle  which  men  are  still  trying  their  hands  and  heads 
upon. 

"Again,  in  physics,  as  a  further  scientific  advance  on 
the  foundations  of  pure  mathematics,  is  there  any  question 
so  replete  with  interest  to  all  human  kind  as  what  supports 
the  earth,  when  as  Job  truly  remarked,  it  is  hung  from 


332 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


nothing,  suspended  over  empty  space,  and  yet  does  not  fall? 
As  it  regularly  revolves  around  a  bright  central  orb,  and  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  obtain  therefrom  light  and  heat  suit- 
able to  man,  and  day  and  night,  what  is  the  nature  of  that 
path  which  it  so  describes,  and  what  is  the  distance  of  the 
physical  life  luminal  round  which  it  now  revolves  ?  As  in 
squaring  the  circle,  so  in  measuring  the  distance  of  the 
earth's  central  sun,  both  learned  and  unlearned  have  been 
working  at  the  question  for  twenty- three  hundred  years, 
and  are  still  employing  themselves  upon  it.  Nothing  that 
nations  can  do  is  thought  too  much  to  devote  to  this  ques- 
tion of  questions  in  physics  for  the  future  behoof  of  a 
world  grown  scientific.  Yet  there  is  the  numerical  expres- 
sion for  that  cosmical  quantity  nailed  to  the  mast  of  the 
Great  Pyramid  from  the  earliest  ages,  for  it  is  its  mast  or 
vertical  height  multiplied  by  its  own  factor,  the  ninth  power 
of  ten,  which  is  the  length  all  modern  men  are  seeking,  and 
struggling,  and  dying  in  order  to  get  a  tolerably  close  ap- 
proach to  the  arithmetical  figure  of.  And  this  accurate 
sun  distance  at  the  Pyramid  is  accompanied  by  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  space  travelled  over  during  a  whole  circle  of  the 
earth's  revolution,  and  the  time  in  which  it  is  performed. 

"And  if  from  solar  system  quantities  we  turn  to  matters 
of  our  own  planet  world  in  itself  alone, — does  not  every 
inhabitant  thereof  yearn  to  known  its  size,  and  yet  was  not 
that  impossible  to  all  men  of  all  the  early  ages  to  attain 
with  any  exactness  ?  But  precisely  that  thing  which  all 
mankind  from  the  creation  up  to  the  day  of  Job  had  not 
accomplished,  and  had  no  idea  or  power  how  to  set  about 
to  perform  it,  and  did  not  make  even  any  rude  attempts  in 
that  direction  during  the  following  twenty-five  hundred 
years— though  they  do  know  it  now  with  tolerable  accu- 
racy— was  not  only  well  known  to  the  author  of  the  design 
of  the  Great  Pyramid,  but  was  there  employed  as  that  most 
useful  standard  in  terms  of  which  the  base  side  length  is 
\aid  out,  or  with  accurate  decimal  reference  to  the  earth's 
peculiar  figure,  its  polar  compression,  the  amount  thereof, 


APPENDIX. 


333 


and  the  most  perfect  method  of  preserving  the  record  for 
all  men.  "Who  but  the  Lord  could  have  done  that  wonder 
above  man's  power  then  to  do  ?  "Who,  indeed,  but  the  Goa 
of  Israel  could  have  performed  this  last-mentioned  still 
greater  wonder  than  any  mere  linear  measure,  so  far  as  its 
exceeding  difficulty  to  men  even  in  the  present  scientific 
generation  is  concerned,  and  could  have  actually  introduced 
into  the  King's  Chamber  Coffer,  and  the  said  chamber  itself, 
an  expression  for  the  next  most  important  quality  after 
size,  of  the  earthballwe  live  upon — viz.,  its  'mean  density,' 
besides  expressing  in  the  base  diagonals  of  the  Pyramid  the 
enormous  cycle  of  years  composing  the  earth's  disturbed 
rotation  or  precession  period  of  the  equinoxes  ? 

"  Yet,  with  all  this  amount  of  science  brought  before  us 
out  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  yea,  even  with  all  this  quintes- 
sence of  scientific  results,  let  us  not  be  run  away  with  by 
the  notion  of  some,  that  to  teach  science  was  the  beginning 
and  end  for  which  that  building  was  erected.  .  .  . 

M  The  second  part  of  the  end  wherefor  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid was  built,  I  have  already  said,  appears  to  begin  some- 
what thus,  viz.,  to  show  the  reality  and  the  settled  as  well 
as  long  preordained  times  and  seasons  for  each  of  the  two 
comings  of  Christ, — both  for  that  one  which  has  been 
(eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-seven  years  ago),  under 
whose  then  commenced  spiritual  dispensation  we  are  still 
living,  and  also  for  that  other  one  in  kingly  glory  and  power 
which  is  yet  to  beam  upon  us. 

"  When  that  second  coining  has  been  appointed  to  take 
place  must  be  a  most  momentous  question,  and  it  is  one  to 
which  1  can  only  reply,  that  so  far  as  the  Great  Pyramid 
seems  to  indicate  at  present  in  the  Grand  Gallery,  the 
existing  Christian  dispensation  must  first  close  in  some 
manner  or  degree,  the  saints  be  removed,  and  a  period  of 
trouble  and  darkness  commence,  for  how  long  it  is  difficult 
to  say,  seeing  that  the  scale  of  a  pyramid  inch  to  a  year 
appears  to  change  there.  Very  long  the  time  can  hardly 
be,  if  the  pyramid  standards  of  the  metrology  of  that  uni* 


334 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


versal  kingdom,  the  only  successful  universal  kingdom  that 
there  ever  will  be  on  earth,  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Christ, 
are  already  beginning  to  appear  from  out  of  the  place  of 
security  where  they  were  deposited  in  the  beginning  of  the 
world." — Our  Inheritance  in  the  Great  Pyramid,  1874,  pp. 
463-479. 

J.  G.,  IN  EDINBURGH  EVENING  COURANT,  MAY 
9th,  1868. 

"  In  our  opinion  the  idea  of  a  Divine  interposition  in  the 
planning  and  construction  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  when 
closely  contemplated  as  springing  from  all  the  facts  and  re- 
lations of  the  case,  is  perfectly  rational  and  credible  in  the 
estimation  of  a  rightly  instructed  mind.  Rightly  instructed 
mind,  we  say,  for  a  man  may  be  mighty  in  '  midden '  phil- 
osophy, and  ignorant  as  a  child  in  that  great  mother  science 
of  catholic  and  revealed  theology,  based  on  the  grand  design 
argument  uttered  by  the  Cosmos,  on  the  wide  testimony  of 
universal  history  and  tradition,  and  on  that  testimony  of 
human  nature  to  religion  which  is  so  inextinguishable  that 
it  drives  the  very  atheistic  positivists  into  that  ineffably  sad 
idolatry  of  humanity  itself.  It  is  on  this  grand  testimony 
that  the  astronomer  royal  for  Scotland  builds,  and  we  re- 
joice to  be  of  one  mind  with  him.  And  this,  not  because 
we  think  the  truth  of  religion,  as  the  grandest  historical 
element,  is  dependent  on  the  truth  of  the  theory  as  to  the 
Great  Pyramid,  but  because  the  principles  involved  ia  the 
full  argumentation  of  this  theory  are  among  the  principles 
of  catholic  theology  according  to  our  description  of  it,  and 
accordingly,  whether  the  case  of  the  Great  Pyramid  be  one 
to  which  these  principles  are  rightly  applied  or  not,  the 
principles  themselves  dare  not  be  pooh-poohed.  The  self- 
called  '  advanced  thinkers  '  of  the  archaeological  schools 
may  scout  them,  but  we  hold,  on  the  universal  testimony 
of  sacred  and  profane  history,  that  man's  story  does  not 
take  its  rise  in  a  dunghill.  Our  creed  in  this  matter  is  that 
blessed  belief  handed  down  in  Scripture,  and  chanted  by 


APPENDIX. 


335 


the  grand  choir  of  historians  and  poets.  The  theory  of  the 
Pyramid,  too,  falls  in  comp^tely  with  the  grand  strain.  It 
points,  on  the  ground  of  remarkable  facts  and  coincidences, 
to  the  Great  Pyramid  as  an  instance  of  those  divine  inter- 
positions which  are  known  on  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 
corroborated  by  tradition,  to  have  been  made  as  occasion 
called  for  them,  during  the  infant  ages  of  the  world. 

"Moreover,  the  Great  Pyramid,  viewed  in  the  light  of 
this  theory,  is  seen  to  be  a  peculiar  one  among  other  ele- 
ments of  prophecy,  cast  by  Divine  Providence  as  seed  on 
the  waters  among  the  nations,  to  ripen  in  due  time  and 
serve  most  beneficent  ends  in  the  appointed  season. 

"  There  existed  in  the  religious  books  of  the  ancient  Per- 
sians, undoubted  prophetic  and  apocalyptic  elements,  which 
certainly  contributed  along  with  other  elements  in  the 
Magian  system  to  form  that  character  which  fitted  Cyrus 
and  his  Persians  to  punish  the  grossly  idolatrous  Babylon- 
ians, and  free  God's  ancient  people.  Again,  if  ever  there 
was  a  clear  case  of  divine  interposition  of  the  more  ordi- 
nary kind  employed  for  great  moral  and  religious  ends,  it 
may  be  seen  in  the  moral  and  religious  revival,  such  as  it 
was,  that  took  its  rise  in  pagan  Greece  in  the  person  of  Soc- 
rates, and  all  that  sprang  from  the  influence,  example, 
and  teaching  cast  into  society  by  that  noble  martyr. 
Still  again,  it  is  a  matter  of  notoriety  that  the  Romans 
treasured  in  the  Capitol  certain  Sibylline  books,  that  can  be 
shown  not  to  have  been  favorable  to  polytheism,  still  less  to 
pantheism,  and  that  they  not  only  fell  in  remarkably  in 
certain  prophetic  statements  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
but  influenced  the  conduct  of  leading  Romans  themselves. 
All  these  we  devoutly  believe  to  have  been  arranged  and 
provided  by  God,  even  as  we  know  from  history  that  they 
formed  powerful  elements  in  forces  that  moved  the  cardinal 
events  in  human  history.  And  is  any  one  so  blind  as  not 
to  see  that  we  live  in  times  as  momentous  as  any  since  those 
of  the  flood,  excepting  those  years  when  the  Lord  of  Glory 
himself  dwelt  upon  earth  ?    For  how  many  are  ready  to 


336 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE. 


/ 

shout  Io  Psean  !  in  the  vain  hope  that  at  last  the  Wile 
superstition,'  as  they  call  it,  taught  in  the  holy  Scriptures, 
and  so  marvellously  supported,  is  doomed  to  a  speedy  ex- 
tinction ?  Others  are  busily  helping  on  this  sure  consum- 
mation, as  they  believe  it,  by  advancing  and  fostering  a 
strange  philosophy,  which  (whatever  lip  worship  some  of 
its  sects  may  pay  to  revelation,  yet  in  reality)  takes  man  up 
at  first  as  an  ape-descended  animal,  reared  in  barbarism, 
and  destined  in  the  end  (so  far  as  their  philosophy  can  show) 
only  to  make  manure  for  the  soil  he  sprang  from. 

"  When  forced  to  hearken  to  such  degrading  opinions,  is 
it  not  a  boon  to  be  thankful  for,  when  there  is  presented  to 
our  contemplation  a  most  noble  builded  work,  which  proves 
how  far  removed  from  savageism  its  architects  were,  at  a 
period  when  history  and  tradition  alike  testify  that  man 
and  the  world  had  just  emerged  from  an  awful  catastrophe  ? 
For  in  saying  this  we  stand  well  supported,  and  defy  any 
one  to  disprove  on  the  only  valid  and  allowable  ground — 
that  of  universal  history  and  catholic  theology — the  reason- 
ableness and  credibility  of  God's  interfering  to  instruct  and 
guide  an  architect,  who  knew  and  worshipped  him,  in  the 
rearing  of  a  grand  symbolic  building,  suited  according  to 
divine  foreknowledge,  at  least  to  stagger,  and  suggest  wiser 
views  to,  certain  of  the  '  advanced  thinkers, '  and  rather  too 
pensive  a  priori  philosophers,  of  these  latter  days." — Re- 
printed in  Antiquity  of  Intellectual  Man,  1868,  pp.  476-485. 


INDEX. 


ABIMELECH,  199,  n.,  200,  n. 

ABOU  BALKI,  on  antiquity  of  great 
pyramid,  173. 

ABRAHAM,  118,  119,  147,  159,  209, 

211,  213,  u.,  217,  n.,225,  n. ;  248, 
n.,  249,  n. ;  in  Egypt,  106 ;  versed 
in  Astronomy,  144;  meets  Mel- 
chisedec,  206 ;  conversant  with 
the  language  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Palestine,  207,  n.;  age  of,  204; 
civilization  of,  284. 

ADAM,  217,  7i.,  222,  n.,  author  of 
part  of  Geuesis,  223,  n. ;  primi- 
tive condition  of,  230,  283-285. 

ADVENT,  the  second,  150-153 ;  303- 
309;  time  of  not  known,  311, 
312  ;  is  daily  impending,  152, 313 ; 
our  duty  respecting,  315,  316  ; 
history  after,  308,  309. 

AIR-TUBES,  in  King's  Chamber,  18, 
31 ;  in  Queen's  Chamber,  18,  156, 
157. 

AIRY,  on  earth's  density,  66,  n. 

AITON  and  INGLIS,  on  length  of 
pyramid's  sides,  55,  n. ;  on  pyra- 
mid's height,  56;  discover  south 
base  sockets,  117. 

ALARIC,  301. 

ALCYONE,  83,  90,  91,93. 

AL-MAMOUN,  Caliph,  forces  an 
entrance  into  the  great  pyra- 
mid, 19,  22-26,  41,  174;  what  he 
finds,  68,  182. 

ALMODAD,  a  descendant  of  Joktan, 

212,  n. 

ANGLE,  of  rise  of  great  pyramid, 

48,  n.  55. 
ANGLE  MEASURES,  48,  n.,  56. 

ANTECHAMBER,  64,  258,  n.;  pro- 
portions of,  259,  n. 


ANTIQUITY,  of  Man,  285,  286,  of 
pyramid,  38,  39,  172,  173,  176. 

AQUARIUS,  constellation  of,  86, 
205. 

ARABIA,  104,  211  and  note,  214,  n. 

ARABIANS,  the  early,  212-217 ;  tales 
of,  respecting  pyramid,  27  ;  tra- 
ditions of,  respecting  pyramid, 
173,  174  ;  the  Hyksos  reputed  to 
be,  201,  202. 

ARARAT,  Mt.,  142. 

ARCHITECTS  OF  PYRAMID  not 
Cheops,  197  ;  not  Egyptians,  33 ; 
traditions  respecting,  172-174; 
the  faithful  descendants  of  Noah, 
177,  221;  Shemites  abiding  in 
Egypt  at  the  time,  197,  202,  221, 
226;  divinely  inspired,  33,  36, 
98,  121,  227,  230;  their  scientific 
knowledge,  44,  50,  107,  108,  175, 
221,  228-231,  275,  279,  289,  320; 
memorialized  the  distance  of  the 
Earth  from  the  Sun,  50  ;  meas- 
ured the  Earth,  57-65 ;  weighed 
it,  65-68;  acquainted  with  its 
motions,  75;  knew  where  to  find 
the  poles  of  the  Earth,  76;  deter- 
mined truly  the  four  cardinal 
points,  77 ;  drafts  of  still  exist, 
51. 

ARCHITECTURE,  of  great  pyra- 
mid, 3,  pre/.,  39,  40,  48,  n.,  107, 
j  288. 
ARIES,  constellation  of,  153. 

ARK  OF  COVENANT,  69,  70 ;  capac- 
ity measure  of,  70, 167. 

ASTRONOMY,  antiquity  of,  140- 
145;  of  pyramid,  74-79;  140- 
145 ;  324. 

ATHEISM,  137,  253-255. 

AXIS  OF  THE  EARTH,  as  a  stand- 
ard of  linear  measure,  59,  60  ; 
known  to  builders  of  great 
pyramid,  75, 

(337) 


338 


IXDEX. 


AZIMUTH  TRENCHES,  51,  52,  n. 

BABEL,  tower  of,  and  the  pyramid 
177. 

BABYLON,  astronomy  of,  95 ;  met- 
rical system  of,  96;  ruins  of, 
attests  the  Bible,  104;  type  of  the 
world,  105. 

BAILLY,  on  signs  of  Zodiac,  141. 

BAILY,  experiments  of,  on  density 
of  the  earth,  66. 

BALDWIN,  on  Prehistoric  Nations, 
214,  n. 

BARNES.-ALRERT,  116,  294,  a, 

BASE,  of  great  pyramid,  length  of 
side  of,  48,  n.,  54,  55,  55,  n. ; 
area  of,  15. 

BASHAN,  104. 

BAUMGARTEN,  28,  n.,  183,  n.,  184, 

BEN  YAHIYA,  182, 183. 

BESSEL,  on  length  of  precessional 
cycle,  82. 

BEY,  HEKEKYAN,  on  the  coffer, 
187. 

BIBLE,  truth  of,  attested,  104 ;  re- 
ferred to, 
Gen.  1:1-31,  224,  n. 
"    2:1-3,  224,  n. 
"    2:4-3:  24,  222,  n. 
"  2:11-14,216. 
u    4:1-4,  6-8,  224,  n 
**  4:1-26,223,8. 
"    4  : 9-22,  223,  n. 

*  5:1-32.  223,  n. 
"  7:1-6,  224,  n. 
"  7  : 7-24,  223,  n. 
"  8  : 1-19.  223,  n, 
"  8  :  20-22,  224,  n. 
u  »:  1-27,  223,  n. 
M    9  : 28,  29,  224,  n. 

"  10 : 1-32,  208,  211,  n.,  224,  n. 

"  11 : 1-9,  224,  n. 

"  11 : 10-26,  224,  n. 

"  20:2,  199,  n. 
Deut.  3:17,  225,  n. 
Job  4:12,  13,  224. 
"  6:10,224. 
"     8  :  8-10,  217. 
"     9:9,  205,  n. 
"  12:12,217. 
"    19  :  6,  205. 
"    19 : 23-27,  219,  221. 
"  23:12,224. 

*  29:  218. 

"  31:26-28,218. 
"  33  : 14-16,  224. 
"  38:  219,224. 


Job  38:1-7,  114,  115. 

"    38:31,  32,  205,  n. 

"   42  :5-7,224. 
Psalm  81  :5,  207,  n. 
4    "      114:l,  207,n. 
Amos  9:  7,  199,  n. 
Luke  1:69,  70,  222. 
Acts  3: 21,  222. 
I  Pet.  1 : 10-12,  278. 
Jude  14,  223,  n. 

BIBLE,  quoted : 
Deut.  2  :  23,  198. 
Job  38:  1-7, 114-120. 
Psalm  118:22, 123. 
Isa.  19:19,  20,  111. 
Jer.  32 ,18-20,  109. 
Ez.  31 : 14-18.  146. 
Amos  9  :  7, 199. 
Zech.  4:6,  7, 122. 
Matt.  21 :  42-44, 125. 
John  7  :  17,  253. 

«    8  :  56, 144. 
Acts  4: 31, 124. 
Eph.  2:20-22,  124. 
Heb.  7  : 12. 
I  Pet.  2  :  4-8,  124. 
Rev.  7:9-17,161. 

«  12:10-11,170. 

BILDAD,  21fi,  220. 

BORSIPPA,  temple  of,  95. 

BOSS,  on  suspended  granite  leaf,  64. 

BRAHE,  TYCHO,  78,  82. 

BRANDE^  on  the  pyramid,  179, 193. 

BRINK  LEY,  DR.,  on  the  time  of 
Job's,  trial,  206,  n. 

BRUGSCH,  on  wisdom  of  Egypt,  92. 

!  BUILDERS  OF  PYRAMID,  cf. 
Architects. 
BUNSEN,  39,  215,  n.,  217,  n.,  on 
Coptic  words,  46 ;  on  wisdom  of 
Egvpt,  92 ;  on  past  history  of 
Egypt,  105, 106. 

CAIN,  the  author  of  perverted  sci- 
ence, 176. 

CALLET,  M.,  on  axis  of  the  earth 
as  a  standard  of  linear  measure, 
59. 

CANAANITES,  origin  of,  206,  n. 

CAPACITY  MEASURES,  table  of, 
73,  n. ;  of  King's  Chamber,  47, 
I        66-68,  70;  of  Coffer,  68-70;  of 
Queen's  Chamber,  46,  259,  n. ;  of 
Ark  of  Covenant,  70,  167. 

CAPHTOR,  198,  199,  n. 
CAPHTORIMS,  198, 199,  n. 


INDEX. 


339 


CAPSTONE,  cf.  Corner  stone. 

CARTOUCHES  of  Cheops  and  Bro- 
ther, discovered  in  pyramid,  20  ; 
also  in  the  Wady  Meghara,  288. 

CASEY,  CHARLES,  85,  n.,  129,  188, 
326,  327. 

CASING-STONES,  of  great  pyra- 
mid, 15,  29,  31,  56. 

CASSINI,  on  Signs  of  Zodiac,  114. 

CATHEDRALS,  heights  of  the 
highest,  57,  n. 

CAVENDISH,  experiments  of,  on 
density  of  the  earth,  6€,  n. 

CECILE,  on  height  of  pyramid,  56. 

CENTRE  OF  UNIVERSE,  pointed 
to  by  pyramid,  90,  91. 

CHALDEANS,  wisdom  of,  95. 

CHAMBER,    Kings,    cf.  King's 

Chamber. 
Queen's,  cf.  Queen's 

Chamber. 
Subterranean,     130  ; 

description  of,  53, 

188. 

conjectured,  16,  159, 
160-163;  how  to 
find,  162, 163. 

CHAMBERS  OF  CONSTRUCTION, 
17,  29,  31,  47,  306. 

CHART,  cf.  Diagram. 

CHEMMES,  200,  201 ;  cf.  Cheops. 

CHEOPS,  burial-place  of,  182  ;  not 
original  architect  of  great  pyra- 
mid, 197 ;  once  opposed  to  idola- 
try, 195,  196;  overcome  by  the 
Shepherd  Kings,  200,  201;  car- 
touche of,  20,  288,  n. ;  iron  works 
and  furnaces  of,  288,  n. 

CHRIST,  how  referred  to  in  great 
pyramid,  120-128,  147;  quoted, 
125;  in  Egvpt,  106;  length  of 
life  of,  130,  148,  293. 

CHRISTIAN  DISPENSATION, 
symbolized  in  pyramid,  128-137  ; 
o'uteome  of,  150,  303-310;  cf. 
Redemption. 

CHRISTIAN,  the,  new  life  of,  how 
symbolized,  131. 

CHRISTIANITY,  modern,  136. 

CHRONOLOGY,  of  pvramid,  79-87 ; 
of  prophecy,  312,  313. 


CHURCH  HISTORY,  periods  of, 
298-302. 

CHURCHMAN,  THE,  notice  of  pres- 
ent work,  237.  255. 

CIRCLE,  squaring  of,  20, 44, 187,  257 ; 
degrees  of,  72. 

CIVILIZATION,  primeval,  227,  228, 
283-286 ;  primitive  Arabian, 
Shemitic,  211,  211,  n. 

CIVILIZERS,  the  primitive,  210-217, 

COFFER,  the  granite,  48, 187 ;  only 
article  of  furniture  in  pyramid, 
17,  26  68 ;  description  of,  47,  68, 
190,  259,  n.;  capacity  of,  67,69; 
same  cubic  contents  as  Ark  of 
Covenant,  70,  167 ;  tt  proportion 
in,  66,  259,  n.;  a  standard  of 
weight  and  capacity  measure,  67. 

CONGREGATIONALIST,  the,  on 
present  work,  238. 

CONSTELLATIONS,  the,  140-144, 
205,  n.,  284,  n. ;  cf.  Zodiac,  also 
Mazzaroth. 

COPTIC  LANGUAGE,  46. 

CORNER-STONE,  the,  of  pyramid, 
not  at  the  base,  115,  116,  116,  n., 
125-128;  the  head-stone,  122;  a 
symbol  of  Christ,  122-128;  pecu- 
liar shape  of,  126 ;  fulfils  Scrip- 
ture references,  122-128. 

CORNER-STONES,  foundation,  19, 
30,  116. 

CORY'S  FRAGMENTS,  200. 

COURANT,  Edinburgh,  on  great 
pyramid,  334-336, 

CRITICISMS,  on  present  work, 
favorable,  234-239 ;  adverse,  240- 
255,  265-267. 

CUBIT,  Egypto-Babylonian,  62; 
Sacred,  length  of,  61,  62,  96;  as 
determined  by  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
62,  n.,  68;  confirmed  by  Cotter, 
62,  69,  167;  of  pyramid,  62,  96, 
167  ;  how  related  to  perimeter  of 
base,  63 ;  testimony  of  Captain 
Tracy  and  Rev.  Glover,  64,  n. 

CUNEIFORM  INSCRIPTIONS,  103. 

CYCLE.  Precessional,  64,  80-82,  206, 
n.,  Sothic,  93. 

DATE  OF  GREAT  PYRAMID,  83, 
85. 

DAVISON,  NATHANIEL,  29, 29,  n.f 

305. 


340 


INDEX. 


DAY,  ST.  JOHN  VINCENT,  4,  pre/., 
188,  260,      287,  n. 

DAY  AND  YEAR,  in  pyramid,  63, 
64. 

DENISON,  BECKETT,  39;  on 
French  metre,  59;  on  polar 
diameter  of  earth,  61 ;  on  pyra- 
mid as  a  scientific  monument, 
187. 

DENSITY  OF  THE  EARTH,  ex- 
periments to  find,  66  n.,  mean, 
48;  a  standard  of  weight  and 
capacity  measure,  73,  n, 

DEVELOPMENT  THEORY,  228, 
282,  283. 

DEVIL,  cf.  Satan. 

DIAGRAM,  10;  description  of,  11, 
15-20. 

DIKLA,  son  of  Joktan,  213,  n. 

DIODORUS  SICULUS,  21;  on 
burial-place  of  Cheops,  182, 184. 

DIORITE,  in  great  pyramid,  160, 
161. 

DISCOVERIES,  progress  of,  102. 

DISPENSATION,  Christian  (cf. 
Redemption),  how  symbolized, 
128-133,  303-317;  Jewish,  133, 
147. 

DRACONIS,  a,  83,  86,  145,  153. 
DRAGON,  constellation  of,  145,  294. 
DUPUIS,  on  signs  of  Zodiac,  141. 

EARTH,  polar  axis  of,  43,  48,  60,  65  ; 
as  the  standard  for  linear  meas- 
ure, 59,  60;  triple  crust  of,  42; 
density  of,  48,  66,  n.;  diameter 
of,  47  ;  mean  distance  of,  from 
the  Sun,  49,  79,  261,  262;  ellip- 
ticity  of,  265,  n.,  292 ;  motions  of, 
known  to  builders  of  pyramid, 
75;  specific  gravity  of,  65",  66,  67  ; 
sphericity  of,  43,  75. 

EBER,  author  of  part  of  Genesis, 
224,  n.;  descendants  of,  211-215. 

ECLIPTIC,  obliquity  of,  292. 

EDRIS,  174. 

EGYPT,  author  in,  pref.  5 ;  position 
of,  13 ;  historic  connections  of, 
14,  106;  in  the  past,  105-107; 
number  of  pyramids  in,  38 ; 
idolatry  of,  194 ;  kings  of,  200, 
201. 


EGYPTIANS,  civilization  of,  287, 
287,  n. ;  acquainted  with  iron, 
287,  n. ;  year  of,  93;  wisdom  of, 
92-94;  not  the  architects  of 
great  pyramid,  33,  94;  did  not 
regard  Cheops  as  its  builder, 
197. 

ENCKE,  on  the  Sun  distance,  261. 

END,  time  of  the,  150-153,  310-310, 
333. 

ENOCH,  174,  223;  book  of,  140,  n. 

ENTRANCE  to  pyramid,  as  left  by 
its  builders,  16,  41 ;  forced  by 
Al  Mamoun,  19,  22-26,  41;  re- 
opened, 31 ;  levelled  at  a  polar 
star,  83 ;  a  time  chart,  84 ;  em- 
placement of,  292;  question  of 
first,  25,  n. 

EPISCOPAL  RECORDER,  on  pres- 
ent work,  238. 

EPISCOPAL  REGISTER,  on  pres- 
ent work,  235. 

EQUINOXES,  cf.  Precession. 

ERA,  our,  102,  280. 

ERRORISTS,  their  unbelief  no 
evidence  of  want  of  adequate 
proof  of  the  truth,  252,  253. 

EVOLUTION,  theories  of,  as  now 
held,  282-286. 

EWALD,  on  primitive  Arabians, 
206,  n. ;  on  the  language  of  the 
Philistines,  199,  n. 

EXODUS,  miracles  of,  109,  110  ;  time 
of,  147. 

FACTS,  the  theory  of  present  work 
appeals  to,  265;  must  stand 
against  all  a  priori  reasoning, 
256,  272 ;  are  explained  by  this 
theory, 259,  260. 

FAITH,  relation  of  great  pyramid  to, 
230,  231,  270,  290. 

FANATICISM,  the  charge  of,  265, 
266. 

FIVE,  the  number,  45-48,  67. 
FLOOD,  pyramid  date  of,  86,  87. 

FOUNDATION  CORNER-STONES, 
19,  30,  116. 

FRENCH  METRE,  58,  59,  73,  245- 
247. 

GALE,  on  our  indebtedness  to  the 
Greeks,  12. 


INDEX. 


341 


GALLOWAY,  quoted,  163. 

GENESIS,  a  sacred  compilation,  222, 
n. ;  cf.  Bible. 

GENTILES,  salvation  for,  how  sym- 
bolized, 149. 

GEOMETRY  OF  GREAT  PYRA- 
MID, 42,  43,  189,  256,  324. 

GESENTUS,  cited,  110,  n. 

GLOVER,  REV.,  188 ;  testimony  of, 
to  date  lines  in  great  pyramid, 

85,  n. 

GOD,  existence  of,  137;  Trinity  of, 
138;  providence  of,  139;  con- 
cerned in  the  building  of  great 
pyramid,  36,226,319;  Sons  of,  117- 
119;  plan  of  His  works,  82,  276. 

GOGUET,  PRES.,  on  epoch  of  Job's 
trial,  206,  n. 

GOODSIR,  188;  on  great  pyramid, 
36,  37,  319-324. 

GRAND  GALLERY,  description  of, 
17,  24,  191 ;  ston<  s  in  ce iliug  of, 
49,  293,  294;  sevens  in,  88;  a  type 
of  the  Christian  dispensation, 

86,  90,  130,  131,  148,  303-310;  a 
chart  of  Christian  Historv,  134- 
136,  296-301,  303. 

GRANITE,  used  in  great  pyramid, 
17,  47  ;  Leaf  in  ante-room,  64. 

GRAVITY,  of  the  Earth,  65-67. 

GREAVES,  PROF.  JOHN,  explora- 
tions of,  28,  29;  on  the  pyramid, 
186 ;  on  the  Arabian  writers,  27. 

GREEKS,  the,  12,  defective  astrono- 
my of,  78. 
GROVE,  quoted,  9. 

HALES,  DR.,  39,  206,  n. ;  on  pyra- 
mid, 178. 

HARTLAND,  on  remains  of  iron 
works  in  Sinaitic  peninsula, 
283,  n. 

HAZARMAVETH,  Son  of  Joktan, 
212,  n. 

HEAD  CORNER-STONE,  cf.  Cor- 
ner-stone. 

HEAT,  measure,  table  of,  74,  n. 

HEAVEN,  symbol  of,  159-163. 

HEAVENS,  condition  of  at  building 
of  great  pyramid,  83 ;  in  1881, 152, 
153. 

HEBREWS,  21]  ;  Sabbatic  system  of, 
89.  * 


HEIGHT  OF  PYRAMID,  16,  38, 
48,  n.,  49,  55-57. 

HELFRICUS,  JOHANNES,  28,  n., 
183,  183,  n.,  184. 

HELIOPOLIS,  113,  144. 

HELL,  145, 146  ;  descent  into,  130. 

HERMES,  174. 

HERODOTUS,  21,  48,  53,  182,  197. 

HERSCHEL,  SIR  JOHN,  9,  32,  3  4, 
59,  60,  83,  143,  187. 

HIEROGLYPHICS,  103. 

HINDOOS,  38,  112,  201,  n. 

HIPPARCHUS,  80. 

HIRAM,  of  Tyre,  207,  n. 

HISTORIC  FRAGMENTS,  on  pyra- 
mid, 195-203. 

HISTORIC  TESTIMONY,  respect- 
ing pyramid,  21-32. 

HISTORY,  progress  made  in  knowl- 
edge of  early,  103 ;  pvramid, 
charts  of.  81,  84,  130,  132,  135, 
136,  295-302. 

HOMER,  21,  93. 

HYKSOS,  the,  199-202. 

IDOLATRY,  no  marks  of,  in  great 
pyramid,  193-195;  Cheops  op- 
posed, 195, 196. 

INCH,  the,  pyramid,  61,  63-65. 

INSCRIPTIONS,  none  in  great  pyr-  . 
amid,  195. 

INSPIRATION,  pvramid  a  witness 
of,  33,  36,  98,  230,  270. 

INTELLECTUAL  MAN,  antiquity 
of,  227,  228,  283,  284-286. 

INTELLECTUALITY,  of  pvramid, 
3,  pre/.,  33,  45,  50,  98. 108,  228-231 ; 
cannot  be  disregarded,  243. 

INVENTIONS,  progress  in,  102. 

IRON,  used  in  construction  of  pyra- 
mid, 287,  288,  n. ;  tools  of,  found, 
287 ;  ancient  colossal  works  of, 
288,  n. 

ISAIAH,  refers  to  great  pvramid, 
111-113. 

ISRAEL,  198;  history  of,  symbolized, 
84;  relation  of,  to  Egypt,  106. 

JACOB,  207,  n.  ;  in  Egypt,  106. 


342 


INDEX. 


JAMES,  COL.,  experiments  of  on 
the  density  of  the  Earth,  66,  n. 

JAMIESON,  DR.,  on  the  Philistines, 
199,  n. 

JEHOVAH,  likened  to  the  apex  of 
the  pyramid,  122,  123  ;  the  head 
corner-stone,  123 ;  personal  exist- 
ence of,  137;  trinity  of,  symbol- 
ized, 138 ;  providence  of,  139. 

JERAH,  Son  of  Joktan,  gives  name 
to  Arabia,  212,  n. 

JEREMIAH,  the  prophet,  refers  to 
great  pyramid,  109,  110. 

JERUSALEM,  166-168;  rebuilding 
of,  121;  how  great  pyramid 
points  to,  168 ;  founder  of,  202, 
249,  n. ;  in  Abraham's  time,  203. 

JESUS,  cf.  Christ. 

JEWISH  DISPENSATION,  length 
of,  133,  147. 

JEWS,  tradition  of,  respecting  pyra- 
mid, 172  ;  restoration  of,  154, 155  ; 
how  symbolized  in  Queen's 
Chamber,  156-158. 

JOB,  119,  122  ;  a  descendant  of  Jok- 
tan, 213-216;  the  same  as  Jobab, 
209;  perhaps  Mclchisedec,  203- 
210,  217,  220,  247  ;  when  he  lived, 
203-206;  general  character  and 
position  of,  207  ;  the  genealogical 
tables  on,  208:  view  of  Kohlreiff, 
203;  country  of,  216;  a  sacred 
prophet,  217,  n.;  age  of,  204,  n.; 
probably  Philitis,  217,  219,  220. 

JOB,  book  of,  209, 210;  refers  to  great 
pyramid,  114,  115,  294,  n.;  refers 
to  the  constellations,  142,  205,  n., 
294,  n. ;  to  solar  system,  205,  331, 
332 ;  was  written  before  the  time 
of  Abraham,  203,  204. 

JOBAB,  the  same  as  Job,  209,  247. 

JOKTAN,  208,  n.,  209,  n. 

JOKTANITES,  the  true  Arabians, 
211;  civilization  of,  208,  n.,  211; 
their  enterprise,  211,  212. 

JOMARD,  30,  n.,  45,  56,  183,  n.,  186, 
192. 

JORDAN,  the,  21G. 

JOSEPH,  in  Egypt,  106;  not  the 

builder  of  great  pyramid,  180; 

not  entombed  in  it,  185. 

JOSEPHUS,  201 ;  on  the  great  pyra- 
mid, 172;  on  the  Signs  of  the 
Zodiac,  141. 

JUDAISM,  252. 


JUDGMENT,  the,  impending,  how 
symbolized,  133, 307  ;  great  tribu- 
lation of,  134,  309;  day  of,  150, 
151  ;  sudden  coming  of,  151,  304  ; 
nearness  of,  152,  313-316. 

KING'S  CHAMBER,  17,  18,  26,  47, 

70,  258;  only  article  of  furniture 
in,  17,  47  ;  ventilation  of,  18,  31 ; 
by  whom  first  entered,  25  ;  ante- 
room of,  64,  258 ;  proportions  of, 
2o8,  n. ;  as  a  symbol,  149,  306. 

KOHLREIFF,  on  Melchisedec,  203. 

LATITUDE  OF  PYRAMID,  76,  265. 

LAYER,  Jewish,  and  coffer  of  pyra- 
mid, 70. 

LAW,  of  pyramid  building,  51-54. 

LECTURES,  the  present,  why  u  nder- 
taken,  5,  pref. ;  testimonies  re- 
specting, 235-239. 

LEE,  DR.,  on  Job  29  : 7,  218,  n. 

LEPSIUS,  38,  39,  194;  his  theory  of 
pyramid  building,  50-54. 

LES  MONDES,  LA  GRANDE, 
quoted,  262. 

MAEDLER,  PROF.  J.  H.,  on  centre 
of  the  universe,  90,  91. 

MAN,  primitive  condition  of,  227, 
228,  283,  284. 

MANDEVILLE,   SIR    JOHN,  on 

great  pyramid,  28,  180. 
MANETHO.on  the  Shepherd  Kings, 

200,  201. 

MASSOUDI,  on  great  pyramid,  173, 
183. 

MATHEMATICIANS  AND  SCIEN- 
TISTS, an  opportunity  for,  in 
great  pyramid,  37. 

MATHEMATICS  OF  PYRAMID, 
189,  324,  325. 

MAURY,  M.  F.,  on  meridional  Zero 
of  longitude,  262-264. 

MAZZAROTH,  cf.  Sirius. 

MAZZAROTH,  author  of,  on  the 
constellations,  142-144. 

McCAUSLAND,  on  primitive  civili- 
zers,  215,  n. 

MEASURE,  standard  of  linear,  57- 
65,  73,  73,  n.;  interest  concern- 
ing, 58  ;  the  French,  58,  59,  73, 
245-247,  n.;  standard  of  weight 
and  capacity,  73,  n. ;  thermal,  70, 

71,  74,  n. ;  Babvlonian  svstem  of, 
93. 


I  N  D  E  X. 


343 


MELCHISEDEC,  119,  200,  n.,  215,  n. ; 
name  of  descriptive,  203 ;  was  he 
a  real  person,  248-250,  n.;  King 
of  Jerusalem,  203;  nu*  a  native 
of  Palestine,  206;  likelr  the  same 
as  Job,  203-210,  217,  220,  247. 

MEMORIALS,  man's  earliest  re- 
mains of,  286. 

MENZIES,  ROBERT,  finds  the  pyra- 
mid Messianic,  129. 

MERIDIAN,  initial,  for  computing 
longitude,  262-264, 

MESOPOTAMIA,  104. 

MESSAGE,  sacred,  of  pyramid,  233, 
275. 

METRICAL  SYSTEM,  Babvlonian, 
96;  of  pyramid,  72,  96,  327  ; 
French,  58, 59,  73,  245-247. 

METROLOGY  OF  PYRAMID,  71- 
73,  187, 256, 

MIRACLE,  the  construction  of  pyra- 
mid a,  98,  99,  226,  230,  318, 

MIRACLES  OF  THE  EXODUS, 
109,  110. 

MISSIONARY  ZEAL,  revival  of, 
how  symbolized,  134, 135, 

MOAB,  104. 

MOSES,  118,  119,  147,  279 ;  in  Egypt, 
106 ;  the  compiler  of  Genesis, 

222,  n.,  225,  n. 

MUIR,  MR.  COCKBURN,  on  obliq- 
uity of  ecliptic,  292. 

NATURE,  triplicity  of,  42,  43. 

NEM-SHUFU,  reign  of,  20. 

NEWTON,  SIR  ISAAC,  82;  on 
length  of  sacred  cubit,  62,  n.,  on 
value  of  pyramid  in  ascertain- 
ing measures,  187. 

NILE,  its  mouths,  14. 

NIMROD,  105,  179. 

NINE,  a  marked  pvramid  number, 
48,  49. 

NINEVEH,  104, 

NOAH,  284  ;  received  special  revela- 
tions of  science,  175;  faithful 
descendants  of,  build  pyramid, 
177;  author  of  part  of  Genesis, 

223,  n.,  224,  n. 

NUMBERS,  pyramid,  45-50;  five,  45, 
46,  47 ;  nine,  48,  49 ;  seven,  87,  88. 


|  OBAL,  a  descendant  of  Joktan,  213. 

f  OBJECTIONS  to  new  theory  of  the 
'        great  pyramid,  265-280. 

OPHIR,  a  descendant  of  Joktan, 
213,  n. 

ORDINANCE  SURVEY,  British,  on 
diameter  of  the  Earth,  60. 

ORIENTATION,  77, 78. 

;  ORIGEN,  on  Signs  of  Zodiac,  140. 

OSBURN,40,193,196,n.;  on  Lepsius* 
law  of  pyramid  building,  53,  n.; 
on  great  height  of  pyramid,  57. 

OWEN,  DR.,  on  date  of  Book  of  Job, 
I  203. 

!  tt  PROPORTION,  given  in  construc- 
tion of  pyramid,  44,  57,  257-259, 
331;  not  known  to  the  Egyptians, 
93,  260,  271. 
PALESTINE,  105;  Philistines  in. 
200,  n. ;  early  inhabitants  of, 
206,  n. ;  207,  n. 

PASSAGE,  entrance  (cf.  Entrance 
passage),  291 ;  first  upward,  16, 
17 ;  how  discovered,  23, 24 ;  sym- 
bolizes length  of  Jewish  dispen- 
sation, 133, 147. 

PERRY,  DR.,  29,  n.,  186, 

PETRIE,  52,  n. ;  on  weight  of  Earth 
and  pyramid,  66,  n. 

I  PHARAOH,  106,  110,  185, 

PHILISTIA,  198,  cf.  Palestine, 

PHILISTINES,  history  of,  198,  199, 
n. ;  two  branches  of,  200,  n. 

PHILITIS,  reputed  architect  of 
great  pyramid,  198,  201,  n.,  202; 
was  he  the  same  as  Job,  217,  218, 
247;  was  he  the  same  as  Mel- 
chisedec,  248,  n.,  249,  n. 

PHILOSOPHERS,  true,  9,  267. 

PHILOSOPHY,  false,  and  the  pyra- 
mid, 227,  249,  250,  280-290, 

PHCENICLANS,  214,  n.,  215,  n, 

PLEIADES,  83,  88,  90,  91,  132,  152, 
191,  205,  n. 

PLINY,  on  pyramid,  178. 

POLAR  STAR,  narrow  tubic  en- 
trance points  to  a,  -32. 

POOLE,  R.  S.,  on  the  Philistines, 
200,  n. 


344 


INDEX. 


POUND,  the  avoirdupois,  the  pyra- 
mid, G8. 

PRECESSIONAL  CYCLE,  64,  80-82, 
206,  n. 

PRIMEVAL  MAN,  not  a  savage, 
227,  228,  283-286. 

PROCTOR,  R.  A.,  82,  n. ;  on  great 
pyramid,  96,  97,  187,  188;  on 
astronomy,  142. 

PROGRESS,  in  discoveries,  102; 
false  doctrines  concerning,  280, 
sqq. 

PROPHETS,  sacred,  refer  to  great 
pyramid,  109-114  ;  succession  of, 
217,  222,  n. ;  did  not  always 
understand  their  prophecies, 
278,  279. 

PUISEAUX,  on  the  sun-distance, 
262. 

PYRAMID,  a,  description  ofr  42; 
derivation  of  name,  46. 

PYRAMID,  the  great,  38-41 :  anti- 
quity of,  38,  39, 97, 107 ;  apologetic 
value  of,  280  ;  architects  of,  not 
Egyptians,  33,  94,  120,  226 ;  not 
Cheops,  197;  a  shepherd,  198, 
226;  architecture  of,  3,  pref.,  44, 
50, 107,171, 189,228;  area  of  base 
of,  15  ;  argument  of,  against  evo- 
lution, 290;  astronomy  of,  74-79, 
256 ;  base  of,  48,  n.,  54-56  ;  build- 
ing of,  50-53 ;  casing-stones  of, 
15;  chambers  of  cf.,  King's 
Chamber.Queen's,  Subterranean; 
Chronology  of,  79-87;  squares 
the  circle,  20,  44,  228,  257  ;  coffer 
of,  17,  68,  190,  259;  corner-stone 
of,  115,  123  127;  date  of,  83,  85, 
174;  description  of,  42,  50-57; 
disclosures  of,  107, 108;  drafts  of, 
51;  entrance  to,  16,  19,  22-26; 
erected  under  guidance  of  God, 
36,  40, 137,  165,  226,  233,  291 ;  ex- 
plorations of,  29-31 :  figure  of, 
44,  256;  geometry  of,  42,  43,  189, 
256,  324;  grand  gallery  of,  17; 
height  of,  16,  38,  40,  n.,  48,  49,  56, 
n.,  79;  historic  testimony  re- 
specting, 21-32 ;  historic  value  of, 
287  ;  idolatry,  not  a  temple  of, 
193-°03;  imaginary  room  of,  16, 
160-163;  inspiration,  a  witness 
of,  33,  36,  40,  98,  137, 165,  226,  230, 
250,  270,  274,  326;  intellectuality 
of,  3,  pref.,  33,  45,  50,  98,  189,  228, 
289;  Jerusalem  and,  166-168; 
Job  and,  114-120;  key  to  uni- 
verse, 3,  pref.,  43.  192  ;  last  times 
and,  98,  226, 270,  274,  278. 310  sqq.; 
latitude  of,  70,  76,  77, 187,  264,  n., 


265,  n.;  lessons  from,  320-322, 
location  of,  14,  77,  112,  187  ;  me- 
trology of,  71-73,  187,  256; 
models  of,  cut  in  rocli,  52,  n. ; 
numbers  of,  45-50,  88 ;  orienta- 
tion of,  78 ;  opinions  on,  178-181 ; 
original,  the,  41;  prophets  on, 
108-114;  proportions  of,  41-45, 
51,  52,  n.,  54,  57,  257,  258,  n.,  259, 
n.;  sacred  message  of,  233,  275; 
scientific  nature  of,  44.  45-50, 107, 
164,  171,  189,  228-230,  256,  258,  n., 
259,  n.,  289,  320,  330;  scientific 
theory  of,  4,  32-37,40;  Scripture 
interpreted  by,  97,  229 ;  shape  of, 
48 ;  size  of,  50-57  ;  sockets  of,  19 ; 
symbolizations  of,  37, 43, 108, 164- 
166, 128-137,  150-153, 159-163, 226, 

270,  274,  278.  290,  321;  tempera- 
ture of,  70,  71;  tomb  theory  of, 
181-193;  top  of,  15;  tower  of 
Babel  and,  177;  traditions  re- 
specting, 172-177;  treatises  on, 
4,  pref.,  21,  28-35  ;  use  of.  231, 232, 

271,  275,  329-334;  well  of,  19; 
wisdom  shown  in  building  of, 
91-99,  189. 

PYRAMIDS,  the  smaller,  mere  imi- 
tations, 20,  41,  91,93,  94,  185;  the 
various,  38-41;  number  of,  38; 
theories  respecting,  178-181. 

QUEEN'S  CHAMBER,  18,  46,  259, 
n. ;  tubes  from,  18,  89,  156,  157  ; 
measures  of,  46;  niche  in,  47; 
sabbatic,  88,  155,  158,  167. 

RAMPS,  in  grand  gallerv,  131,236; 
import  of,  293,  296. 

RATIONALISM,  280,  281. 

|  RAWLINSON'S"i7erotfo^/5"  quoted, 
197,  206,  n.,  211,  n.;  215,  n. 

REDEMPTION,  plan  of,  how  sym- 
bolized, 128-137,  150,  251. 

REFORMATION,  the,  295,  296. 

REICH,  experiments  on  densitv  of 
Earth,  66,  n. 

RENAN,  quoted,  40,  92,  289. 

RESURRECTION,  svmbolized,  130, 
131. 

ROBINSON,  on  pyramid,  178. 

SABAISM,  the  pvramid  a  protest 
against,  137,  319,  320. 

SABBATIC  SYSTEM,  88,  89,  154, 
155,  158,  167. 

SANDYS,  on  the  great  pyramid,  1S6. 

SATAN,  139,  140,  145, 153. 


INDEX.  345 


SAVAGTSM,  falsely  ascribed  to 
primitive  man,  227,  228,  283-288. 

SAVANTS,  French,  discoveries  of, 
30,  55,  n.,  70,  117. 

SCIENCE,  great  pyramid  an  em- 
bodiment of,  44,  45,  58,  172,  175, 

187,  228-230,  256,  272,  279,  280, 
289,  320,  326,  327;  temper  of 
modern,  227,  228,  231,  280,  290, 
336. 

SCIENTIFIC  THEORY,  of  great 
pyramid,  32-37,  260,  268  ;  attacks 
upon,  37,  40,  250-253,  265-267, 
334-336. 

SCORPIO,  constellation  of,  205,  n. 

SETH,  140,  174,  176. 

SEVEN,  a  pyramid  number,  88,  132. 

SEYFFARTH,  on  antiquity  of 
Zodiac,  142. 

SHAW,  138,  183,  n.,  186,  192. 

SHEBA,  a  descendant  of  Joktan, 
213,  n. 

SHELEPH,  a  descendant  of  Joktan, 
212,  n. 

SHEM,  the  home  of,  217,  n. ;  author 
of  a  part  of  Genesis,  224,  n. 

SHEMITES,  210-215,  222. 

SHEPHERD  KINGS,  cf.  Hyksos. 

SHUFU,  cf.  Cheops. 

SIMPSON,  BARONET,  240-243. 

SIRIUS,  93,  205,  n. 

SKEPTICISM,  the  true  seat  of,  253, 
254. 

SKINNER,  J.  RALSTON,  188,  on 
great  pyramid,  324-336. 

SMYTH,  PROF.  PIAZZI,  24,  28, 
n.,  34,  35,  39,  85,  117,  128,  129, 160, 

188,  240,  241,  260,  n.,  292,  297  ;  on 
use  of  pyramid,  329-334  ;  notice 
of  present  work,  235,  236. 

SOCKETS,  in  which  foundation 
stones  were  set,  19,  30,  31,  117. 

SONS  OF  GOD,  117,  118, 119. 

SPIRITUAL  UNIVERSE,  163-166. 

SPIRITUALITY,  97,  128-137,  150, 
229,  325. 

STANLEY,  on  pyramid,  179. 

STARK,  on  the  Cuphtorims,  199,  n 


STEP,  the  great,  in  grand  gallery, 
135. 

ST.  JOHN,  MR.,  184,  n.;  on  great 
pyramid,  187-193. 

STOCKWELL,  J.  N.,  on  obliquity 
of  ecliptic,  292. 

STRABO,  on  scientific  knowledge  of 
Egyptians,  92. 

SUBTERRANEAN  CHAMBER,  51, 
53,  145,  188. 

SUN,  mean  distance  of,  from  the 
Earth,  49,  79,  261,  262. 

SYMBOLISMS  OF  GREAT  PYRA- 
MID, 37,  43,  137,  191,  192,  290, 
291,  323. 

TAYLOR,  JOHN,  on  great  pyramid, 
32-45,  188,  260,  327-329. 

TEMPER,  the,  necessary  to  appre- 
hend the  truth,  9,  251-254. 

TEMPERATURE  OF  PYRAMID, 
70,  71. 

TESTIMONIES,  on  present  work, 
235-239. 

THEOLOGY,  and  great  pyramid, 
137-150,  249,  250. 

THEOPHANIES,  248,  n.,  249,  n. 

THEORIES  respecting  object  of 
pyramid,  179-193. 

TIMAUS,  201,  202,  cf.  Cheops. 

TOOLS,  used  in  erection  of  pyramid, 
287. 

TRACY,  CAPTAIN  B.  F.,  188, 260,  n. 

TRADITIONS,  respecting  great 
pyramid,  103;  ancient,  172-177  ; 
Phoenician,  respecting  Philis- 
tines, 199,  n.;  Hindoo,  respecting 
the  Hyksos,  201,  n. 

TRANSLATION,  the,  how  symbol- 
ized, 305-307. 

TRAPP,  on  God's  signs  in  Egypt, 
110. 

TUBES,  ventilating,  of  King's  Cham- 
ber, 18,  31 ;  of  Queen's  Chamber, 
18,  156,  157. 

UZ,  216,  217. 

UZAL,  a  descendant  of  Joktan,  212. 
VTRGO,  constellation  of,  141. 
VISITOR,  the,  on  present  work,  237 
VITRINGA,  111. 


346 


I  N  D  E  X. 


VOLNEY,  on  signs  of  Zodiac,  140, 
141. 

VYSE,  COL.  HOWARD,  labors  and 
discoveries  of,  20,  31,  55, 117,  184, 
287. 

WEEK  of  seven  days,  88. 

WEIGHT,  cf.  Measure. 

WELL,  the,  of  the  great  pyramid, 
19,  130. 

WHITING,  COMMODORE,  235, 
262. 

WILFORD,  ASIA  TIC  RESEARCH- 
ES, quoted,  201,  n. 

WILKINS,  on  early  inhabitants  of 
Falestine,  207,  n,  215,  n. 

WILKINSON,  SIR  GARDINER, 
quoted,  27, 183, 187. 


WISDOM,  shown  in  building  of 
pyramid,  91-99,  101;  not  of 
Egypt,  92  ;  not  of  the  Chaldeans, 
95  ;  supernatural,  96,  97,  280,  310. 

WRITING,  known  in  early  times, 
31,  289. 

YEAR,  days  of,  symbolized,  48,  63, 
64,  258,  259. 

YEAR,  Egyptian,  93. 

YEAR,  siderial  and  equinoctial,  80. 

ZECHARIAH,  the  prophet,  uses 
pyramid  image,  122. 

ZINCKE,  on  the  pyramids,  178. 

ZODIAC,  Signs  of,  140-144,  205,  n., 
294,  n.  ;  symbolize  historical, 
theological  and  prophetic  truths, 
143, 144,  294,  n. 


A  MIRACLE  IN  STONE; 

OR,  THE 

GREAT  PYRAMID  OF  EGYPT. 

BY 

Joseph  A.  Seiss,  D.D* 


LITERARY  NOTICES. 

Boston  Evening  Telegraph. — "One  of  the  most  instructive  books 
we  have  ever  read.  It  is  a  succinct  and  comprehensive  account 
of  one  of  the  greatest  monuments  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and 
probably  ever  will  see.  The  deductions,  geometrical,  religious, 
astronomical  and  otherwise,  which  have  been  made,  are  com- 
prehensively, ably,  and  most  interestingly  set  forth,  until  we  feel 
obliged  to  say,  that  no  work  in  popular  form,  of  equal  value,  on 
this  subject,  exists  to  our  knowledge.  We  have  read  every  page 
with  a  kindly  attention,  and  advise  our  readers  to  obtain  the 
work  and  share  our  pleasure." 

Baltimore  Gazette. — "It  is  notable  for  fulness  of  information 
and  accuracy  of  detail,  and  aside  from  its  religious  value  is  an 
important  contribution  to  archaeological  literature.  We  com- 
mend it  to  the  attention  of  all  scholars." 

The  Pittsburgh  Dispatch. — "  The  Lectures  of  Dr.  Seiss  are  as 
remarkable  for  the  polished  beauty  of  their  construction,  as  for 
the  information  which  they  contain.  That  mysterious  pillar,  the 
Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh,  its  relation  to  ancient  history,  modern 
discoveries,  and  Bible  connections,  are  thoroughly  canvassed  in 
this  volume." 

The  Prophetic  Times,  Philadelphia. — "  Dr.  Seiss,  with  his  rich 
fund  of  scriptural  knowledge,  his  familiarity  with  prophecy,  and 
acquaintance  with  general  literature  and  science,  was  well  qualified 
for  developing  this  great  sermon  in  stone,  and  has  invested  it 
with  peculiar  interest.  We  admit  the  general  theory.  We  com- 
mend the  work  to  all  as  well  worthy  their  examination." 


2 


The  Chicago  Standard.—  '  Dr  Seiss  seems  to  regard  the  pyramid 
as  built  under  a  species  of  divine  inspiration,  and  embodying  in 
its  symbolism  a  foreshadowing  of  events  most  deeply  concerning 
the  destinies  of  man  in  this  world  and  the  next ;  such  as,  leading 
incidents  in  the  history  of  Israel,  the  advent  of  Christ,  the  close 
of  the  dispensation  introduced  by  Him.  We  are  of  those  who 
find  ready  faith  in  marvels  of  this  kind  somewhat  difficult.  We 
have,  however,  read  Dr.  Seiss'  book  with  keen  interest,  and 
recommend  it  to  those  who  would  like  to  have  in  succinct  form, 
and  in  a  clear  style,  a  presentation  of  the  main  points  in  this 
question." 

Illustrated  Christian  Weekly. — "The  volume  is  interesting,  its 
coincidences  curious,  if  not  conclusive.  It  may  be  that  the  author 
is  right.  We  would  not  deride  his  theory.  At  any  rate  this 
elaborate  and  comprehensive  account  of  the  oldest  and  greatest 
existing  monument  of  intellectual  man,  and  of  the  recent  dis- 
coveries and  claims  with  regard  to  it,  is  worth  the  reading  of  all 
those  who  are  interested  in  this  general  line  of  study,  if  not  of  a 
still  larger  class." 

Reformed  Church  Messenger. — "  The  author  looks  upon  the  great 
Pyramid  of  Egypt  as  supernatural  in  its  origin,  and  designed  to 
embody  not  only  cosmic  facts,  but  prophecies  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ  which  the  ages  to  come  were  to  make  more  clear.  The 
subject  is  an  interesting  one,  and  whatever  men  may  think  of  the 
theory  set  forth,  they  will  all  agree  that  Dr.  Seiss  has  brought  out 
a  great  deal  of  plausible  evidence  in  its  favor.  The  book  is  very 
clear  in  its  style,  and  gives  a  great  deal  of  information  which 
will  prove  valuable  to  any  one  who  reads  it." 

The  Christian  Intelligencer. — "This  is  an  extremely  interesting 
volume.  It  furnishes  a  more  complete  and  accurate  account  of 
what  is  known  respecting  the  Great  Pyramid  of  Gizeh  than  can 
be  found  anywhere  else.  Though  not  convincing,  it  is  entertain- 
ing and  suggestive." 

The  Presbyterian. — "One  of  the  most  curious  and  certainly  in- 
teresting books  that  has  recently  appeared." 

Messiah's  Herald,  Boston. — "  Like  the  existence  of  the  sun  in 
the  heavens,  the  existence  of  the  Great  Pyramid  is  undeniable; 


and  though  erected  in  the  dim  distance  of  a  past  age,  it  must  be 
conceded  that  it  was  not  the  work  of  beings  just  emerging  from 
monkey-hood,  but  of  intelligent  men,  skilled  laborers,  using  good 
tools,  and  working  after  a  well-devised  plan.  We  are  glad  that 
it  is  being  studied  by  men  of  learning  and  piety ;  and  those  who 
have  a  taste  for  study  in  that  direction,  will  find  many  things  in 
this  volume  to  help  them." 

Lutheran  Observer. — "  Whether  we  accept  the  explanations  or 
not,  the  most  incredulous  reader  must  look  at  the  correspondences 
and  coincidences  with  unbounded  wonder." 

Philadelphia  Inquirer. — "This  book  cannot  be  read  without  the 
deepest  interest.  The  speculations  are  bold,  and  the  data  on 
which  they  are  built  up  are  at  least  curious." 

Public  Ledger,  Philadelphia. — "  A  useful  little  book  on  a  very 
great  subject." 

Chicago  Times. — '  To  those  who  are  willing  to  accept  facts,  for 
what  they  palpably  prove,  the  discoveries  related  in  this  book 
will  be  found  of  the  deepest  interest  and  greatest  value." 

The  Library  Table. — "  A  reader  who  has  anything  of  the 
scientific,  not  to  say  the  skeptical,  spirit  of  the  age,  is  tempted  to 
lay  down  this  book  with  impatience,  if  not  with  indignation,  at 
the  author's  disposition  to  find  the  facts  of  science,  the  dates  of 
history,  the  truths,  and  even  the  prophecies  of  religion,  in  this 
gigantic  structure.  But  as  one  reads  on,  the  impatience  abates, 
and  the  interest  increases,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  author,  how- 
ever quick  to  accept  the  miracle,  does  not  make  it  out  of  his  own 
brain.  He  has  a  foundation  in  real  fact  to  build  upon,  and  if  his 
inferences  appear  extravagant,  he  has  a  school  of  congenial 
thinkers  to  back  him  up,  and  his  book  has  great  value  as  a  con- 
cise statement  of  the  particulars  of  the  structure,  and  a  compcnd 
of  the  system  of  theology  of  which  he  regards  the  Great  Pyramid 
as  the  monument.  Whether  a  chaptei  of  divine  revelation,  or  a 
scroll  from  the  old  Cabala,  the  volume  is  a  great  curiosity  and 
repays  reading." 

The  Chronicle. — <-  The  book  is  thoroughly  comprehensive — by 
odds  the  most  satisfactory  treatment  of  this  greatest  of  the  'seven 
wonders  of  the  world '  of  anything  that  has  yet  come  under  our 


4 


notice,  and  after  reading  it  we  can  fully  say  with  the  author :  1  It 
would  verily  seem  as  if  the  Pyramid  were  about  to  prove  itself  a 
sort  of  key  to  the  universe.'  " 

Boston  Gazette. — "  An  exceedingly  interesting  and  curious  book, 
abounding  in  attractive  information,  and  as  a  consideration  of  all 
that  has  been  written  on  the  subject,  has  a  special  value  from  a 
matter-of-fact  point  of  view.  It  is  well  written,  and  will  amply 
repay  perusal." 

New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. — "  The  book  is  very  pleasantly 
written,  and  we  predict  for  it  a  wide  circulation  among  the  mul- 
titude of  readers  who  are  interested  in  these  grand  relics  of  pre- 
historic times." 

Wilmington  Conference  Worker. — "The  reader  cannot  fail  to 
find  in  this  work  something  that  will  prove  of  great  value." 

The  Richmond  Religious  Herald. — "That  many  of  the  arguments 
brought  forward  by  the  writer  in  support  of  his  interpretations 
are  ingenious,  plausible,  and  some  of  them  startling,  must  be 
conceded.  The  theory  should  not  be  treated  with  ridicule  or 
neglect ;  neither  should  it  be  accepted  without  careful  scrutiny. 
We  live  in  a  time  in  which  so  many  wonderful  discoveries  are 
made  and  so  many  unimagined  secrets  are  brought  to  light,  that 
we  should  be  slow  to  reject  an  opinion  supported  by  so  many 
plausible  proofs  and  by  such  high  authorities  as  that  under  con- 
sideration." 

The  Chicago  Interior. — "  An  interest  almost  amounting  to 
enthusiasm,  has  recently  been  awakened  in  certain  quarters  on 
the  subject  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  In  order  to  get  the  most  re- 
liable information  within  our  reach,  and  not  to  be  entirely  behind 
the  times,  we  have  been  reading  these  volumes  (of  Prof.  C.  Piazzi 
Smyth),  as  also  one  that  has  just  been  published  by  Dr.  Seiss,  of 
Philadelphia,  entitled  A  Miracle  in  Stone.  We  are  free  to  say- 
that  we  have  read  these  books  with  a  growing  wonder.  The 
coincidences  are  very  singular  and  even  remarkable." 


